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American CommonU3caltl(jj6f 



TEXAS 



A CONTEST OF CIVILIZATIONS 



GEORGE P. GARRISON 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

1903 



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COPYRIGHT, 1503^ 
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dy george p. garrison 

Its reserved 



Published May, igos 




The reader will pleas^jgemamber that this book 
is not intended for a histofj^ ol^exas. It is rather, 
to use the words of the laoei^d Dr. Scudder, the 
orio:inal editor of the SeH^sfjA study based on 
[that] history." My aiijUliaSibeen to give a pic- 
ture of what Texas is, and of the process by which 
it has become such. With this in view I have, for 
the most part, neglected details, and have dwelt 
mainly upon the salient features of the experience 
of the people under consideration. My special 
object has been to reveal the significance and the 
effect of this experience. 

My judgment has been that the purposes of the 
work would be best served by avoiding a systematic 
citation of authorities by means of footnotes. It 
has, however, been written under a keen sense of 
responsibility for every statement and every reason- 
able implication. However short of absolute accu- 
racy it may have fallen, that has nevertheless been 
the standard aimed at in the writins:- But there is 



iv PKEFACE 

yet a vast store of unworked material for Texas 
history, and many periods in the life of the Pro- 
vince, the Republic, and the State are still obscure. 
Through some of these it is necessary, until now, 
for those even who know most of the subject to feel 
their way. The authorities and sources used are 
to be found in the various collections accessible in 
Austin, and the fairly trained investigator wishing 
a check on the correctness of the narrative can 
easily locate the passages on which any part of it 
may rest. If errors have crept into the book, — 
and there are doubtless enough of them, — I shall 
be glad to have them pointed out; but I trust it 
will not become necessary to change extensively, 
in essential points, the presentation here attempted. 
Some difficulty has been experienced in dealing 
with the question of accenting Spanish proper 
names that have become familiar in English. The 
usual custom of English writers hitherto has been 
to omit the accents. Spanish scholars, however, 
have adopted a simple and convenient system of 
accentuation, which it seems to me should be ex- 
tended, as far as practicable, to the words adopted 
from that language. The Spanish tilde cannot 
safely be omitted, any more than the French quali- 
tative marks which are regularly written, and the 
accent is quite as important. Neglect of it has 



PREFACE V 

already fixed certain popular errors in pronuncia- 
tion in Texas, e. g. An'a-huac for A-na'liuac. I 
have followed the usage of the Spanish Academy 
as far as possible without making it obtrusive. 
I have not tried to correct Auahuac, nor have I 
ventured to give the proper Spanish brand to the 
sacred name Alamo, but I have always written 
Espiritu, etc. 

The book is not large, but this has not saved the 
writer from having to ask the help of many in the 
various aspects of its making. I am under special 
obligations to Professor W. J. Battle, Miss Lilia 
M. Casis, Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, Mr. Eugene C. 
Barker, and Mr. E. C. H. Bantel, all of the Uni- 
versity of Texas ; Peter J. Hamilton, Esq., of 
Mobile; Professor John R. Ficklen of Tulane 
University ; Judge C. W. Raines of Austin ; 
Mr. R. C. Clark of the University of Wisconsin ; 
Mr. E. W. Winkler of Brenham ; Miss Elizabeth 
West of Bryan ; and Judge Bethel Coopwood of 
Laredo. My acknowledgments are due also to 
Professors F. W. Simonds and T. W. Page of the 
University of Texas, and Mr. R. A. Thompson, 
engineer of the Texas Railroad Commission. 

GEORGE P. GARRISON. 

University of Texas, 
AprU 15, 1903. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. European Expansion in America ... 1 
II. Pre-Colonial Explorations of the Texas 

Country 10 

III. Encroachments of the French ... 20 

IV. Counter-Expeditions of the Spanish, and 

THE Beginnings of Texas .... 26 

V. Kenewed French Encroachments ... 34 

VI. Spanish Settlements in Texas ... 53 

VII. The Beginnings of San Antonio ... 67 

VIII. Fixing a Border with the French . . 75 

IX. The Failure of the Spanish Wat . . 85 

X. Mexico at the Wheel 97 

XI. Anglo-American Invasions .... 110 
XII. The Fringes of Texas during the Decay 

of Spanish Rule 125 

Xni. Austin's Colony 137 

XIV. The Crowd of Empresarios . . . 153 

XV. The Frbdonian War 161 

XVI. Mexican Misrule and Colonial Insubordina- 
tion 170 

XVII. The Struggle for the Constitution of 1824 189 

XVIII. The Struggle for Independence . . 210 

XIX. Home Affairs of the Republic . . . 228 

XX. Foreign Affairs of the Republic . . 241 

XXI. Annexation and Boundary Adjustment . 255 

XXII. Statehood 269 

XXIII. Civil War and Reconstruction . . . 282 

XXIV. The Texas of To-day 298 

Index 313 



TEXAS 

CHAPTER I 

EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 

To understand aright the making of Texas, one 
must see it in its proper historical relations as a 
part of the process by which the peoples of Europe 
occupied America, and which has culminated in the 
formation of the American Union and its dominance 
on the Western Continent. It is easy to see that, 
from the standpoint of general history, the Revolu- 
tion of 1776 is but the transition to a new stage of 
this process. Monroe's famous annual message in 
1823 officially asserted that the period of coloniza- 
tion from overseas was at an end ; but this did not 
stop the flow of population, nor the shifting of po- 
litical boundaries with the advance of the United 
States. Now the great American Republic, not 
content with having expanded from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, has added to its dominions Hawaii, 
Porto Rico, and the Philippines. What the future 
will bring it, none can tell, nor is it necessary here 
to surmise. For the purposes of this book it will be 
sufficient, first, to see the outlines of this movement 
in its entirety in oi-der to grasp its meaning ; and, 
second, to observe how from it has arisen Texas. 



2 TEXAS 

In the discovery and exploration of the New 
World the Spanish led the way. After the daring 
first voyage of Columbus had established the scien- 
tific theory that the East might be reached by sail- 
ing westward and had dissipated the terrors with 
which superstition had covered the face of the At- 
lantic, he and his successors soon found their way 
to the mainland of South America. Gradually 
they extended their voyages entirely around the 
Caribbean and the Gulf, along the opposite Pacific 
coast, and up the Atlantic as far as Virginia ; and 
De Soto and Coronado led far into the unexplored 
wilds of the Mississippi basin expeditions that have 
been a lasting puzzle to investigators, but which in 
substantial results were fruitless. 

While yet the Spanish had hardly more than be- 
gun their work, the English came and sailed along 
a portion of the Atlantic coast. They were first to 
reach the mainland, but they soon retired from the 
field and left it to the French. These found their 
way up the St. Lawrence, and ultimately around 
among the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi 
to its mouth. 

Meanwhile in the track of the explorer had come 
the colonist. Early in the sixteenth century Span- 
ish settlements had begun to dot the shores first 
seen by Columbus and his companions, and within 
less than thirty years from the discovery Mexico 
had been conquered. Spain had now acquired a 
good base for colonization on the mainland ; but 
the work, considering its importance, was carried 



EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 3 

on with little energy. The larger part of South 
America, where there was practically no competition 
except from Portugal, was won with comparative 
ease. To the north, however, there was more to 
fear. In that direction the outposts were thrown far 
forward. Mission, presidio, and vill were scattered 
northward, as time passed, through the valleys of 
the Kio Grande, the Gila, and the Colorado, along 
the Pacific coast, and thinly here and there over 
the whole Southwest. But the land was not really 
occupied, and the few weak and widely dispersed 
settlements acquired strength much too slowly for 
the needs of the after time. 

Early in the seventeenth century the French took 
up the work, and planted colonies along the St. 
Lawrence and the Lakes and in the country adja- 
cent. Finding the north coast of the Gulf of 
Mexico, to which they were led in following the 
Mississippi, still unoccupied, they established settle- 
ments, of which the oldest permanent one dates from 
1699, in the vicinity of the great river's mouth, and 
set up a claim to the vast region which it drained, 
and which they called Louisiana. But, like the 
Spanish, they spread themselves over more territory 
than it was possible for them to hold with such a 
light sprinkling of population, and their path-break- 
ing enterprise was turned finally to the advantage 
of their hereditary enemies, the English. 

Almost exactly at the time when the French were 
making their earliest settlements in the Northeast 
and the St. Lawrence valley, the English estab- 



4 TEXAS 

lished on the Atlantic coast two groups of colonies, 
a southern and a northern. They did not, like the 
Spanish and the Fi-ench, range far and wide in 
search of gold or trade, nor concern themselves in 
any high degree about the souls of those Indians 
whom they did not kill. On the other hand, again 
unlike the Spanish and the French, they began at 
once to wring a living from the soil and the neigh- 
boring sea, and ere long a little surplus to exchange 
for whatever the vexatious navigation acts of the 
English Parliament allowed them to obtain hon- 
estly, or the enterprising smuggler brought them in 
defiance of such acts. At the outset, they seemed 
content with relatively narrow limits ; but, to avoid 
any dangerous concession to their rivals, they ex- 
tended their claims westward to the Pacific, though 
they knew little of the distance, or the geography 
of the unexplored region beyond the mountains. 

Into the unoccupied section between the northern 
and the southern group of English settlements, or, 
roughly indicated, the country bordered by the 
Delaware River and Bay and the Hudson, pushed 
the Dutch and Swedes, starting a group of colonies 
that became in after times the four Middle States. 
The Dutch took possession of the Hudson and made 
the original settlements in what became New York, 
and on the Delaware they were first to settle within 
the limits of the later New Jersey. The Swedes 
established colonies that constituted the beginnings 
of Delaware and Pennsylvania. 

As the work of colonizing went on, there grew 



EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 5 

out of it that series of struggles for possession the 
most remarkable feature of which has been English 
and Anglo-American expansion. In 1565 came the 
preliminary conflict of the series. It was between 
the Spanish and the Huguenot French who were 
seeking a refuge in Florida. It was bloody and 
brief, and it ended in breaking the hold of the 
French on that part of North America forever. 
This affair, however, was essentially rather an epi- 
sode of the counter-Reformation in Europe than a 
contest for territory. It was nearly a century later 
before the energy which was spending itself in the 
religious wars in Europe began to be diverted to- 
wards America and to show its effects there. Dur- 
ing the latter part of this interval the English, 
Dutch, and Swedes had established themselves 
along the Atlantic coast in the fashion already de- 
scribed, and it was in that quarter that the next 
group of the series of struggles occurred. In 1655 
the Dutch began the movement with an easy con- 
quest of the Swedish colony on the Delaware. In 
1664 a similar conquest gave to the English the 
country in possession of the Dutch, including the 
settlements on the Hudson and the Delaware, both 
Dutch and Swedish. In 1673 New York was re- 
taken by the Dutch, but in 1674 it passed finally 
back to the English, who thus filled the gap be- 
tween their northern and southern colonies and 
made of their territory a single continuous strip 
lying between the Alleghanies and the sea. 

But the real struggle was between the English 



6 TEXAS 

and the French. It came with the great series of 
European wars following the accession of William 
and Mary in England, and ending in the overthrow 
of French supremacy in Europe, and the trans- 
fer, from France to England, of an empire more 
substantial in its potency than any the world had 
ever seen. At the conclusion of the contest in 1763, 
the English possessions had expanded westward to 
the Mississippi, southward to the Gulf of Mexico, 
and northward as far as the land was worth claim- 
ing ; the French were practically excluded from the 
North American continent ; and the Spanish, whose 
interests had led them to join the losing side, had 
been deprived permanently of the territory they 
claimed in Georgia, and temporarily of Florida, but 
had obtained by way of compensation Louisiana 
west of the Mississippi, and a fragment, including 
New Orleans, to the east of it. 

In 1776 the English colonies joined in declaring 
themselves independent of Great Britain, and by the 
treaty of Paris in 1783 their independence was fully 
established. They were no longer simply a mouth 
by means of which England might devour America ; 
they were a separate political organism, which had 
inherited all the appetite for territory of its parent. 
Although their population had yet hardly begun to 
flow across the Alleghanies, through bold diplomacy 
they succeeded in winning by this treaty the coun- 
try westward to the Mississippi, so lately torn from 
France. Soon their experience taught them that 
in order to enjoy the full benefit of this acquisition 



EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 7 

they must control the navigation of the river that 
gave access to it from the Gulf ; and seizing the op- 
portunity when the remainder of the valley, which 
Spain was unable to hold, was taken back from her 
by Napoleon, who then needed it less than the 
money it would bring, they were enabled to buy it 
in 1803 at a price hardly worth naming. 

Meanwhile the French and Spanish had clashed, 
in rather feeble and irresolute fashion, in the border 
land between Louisiana and Mexico. A French 
colony planted by mischance on Matagorda Bay in 
1685, and a commercial expedition sent by the gov- 
ernor of Louisiana to the Rio Grande in 1714 had 
roused the Spaniards from their neglect of the 
country north of that river. The founding of a few 
scattered missions was sufficient to secure them 
possession. The French were more easily displaced 
in that quarter than they had been in Florida. The 
country thus weakly colonized by the Spanish was 
formed into a province in 1727, and acquired more 
or less definite boundaries with the name of Texas. 
But although the Spaniard had taken possession 
of the land he feared the French might win, his title 
was still in dispute, nor was it fully recognized till 
1819. By the treaty between the United States 
and Spain made in that year, the claim which the 
French had based on the settlement made by La 
Salle in 1685, and which had passed with the Lou- 
isiana purchase in 1803, was given up as part of a 
general bargain by which Florida was acquired, and 
the way for the Anglo-American to the Gulf on the 
south was completely cleared. 



8 TEXAS 

In 1821 a revolution, begun in 1810, whose 
original occasion had sprung from the French oc- 
cupation of Spain during the Peninsular war, and 
whose final impulse was received from the rising of 
Eiego and Quiroga in 1820, culminated in the sep- 
aration of Mexico from Spain. During this period, 
and even earlier, Texas had been an inviting field 
for those who love the excitement of revolutionary- 
agitation, and various filibustering expeditions, com- 
posed mainly of Anglo-Americans, were directed 
thither. But after Mexico became indeiDcndent, 
its government inaugurated a more liberal policy 
towards immigration, and the Anglo-Americans 
came peaceably in large numbers, brought in by em- 
presarios as colonists. In a few years they became 
the dominant element in Texas. They could not 
adjust themselves to Mexican methods of govern- 
ment ; in 1835, unable to endure it any longer, 
they rose in revolt, and in 1836 they finally threw 
off the Mexican dominion. The new-born republic 
at once sought annexation to the United States ; but 
for nearly ten years, because of opposition from the 
anti-slavery element in that country, it had to stand 
alone. Texas, however, was too great a prize, and 
too willing to be won, to remain independent. The 
expansion impulse at length prevailed, and annex- 
ation, the Mexican war, and the acquisition of the 
whole Southwest followed in rapid succession. The 
Teutonic civilization had made another notable 
encroachment on the Latin, and Texas had been 
enabled to bring a history peculiarly its own, short 



EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN AMERICA 9 

in time, it is true, but rich in achievement, to merge 
in the greater record of the American Union. 

The observant reader will see at once that this 
conspectus serves as a general explanation of the 
making of Texas, not simply in a geographical, 
but also in a social and political sense. The spread 
of revolutionary ideas in Mexico and the separa- 
tion from Spain gave a new impulse and a different 
direction to the national life, but the Spanish ele- 
ment in Mexican civilization was not essentially 
reduced. The coming of the Anglo-American s 
and the overthrow of Mexican sovereignty brought 
about a much more radical change, but did not en- 
tirely wipe out the Spanish influence even in Texas. 
This influence has, in fact, left ineffaceable marks, 
not on the Texan character, perhaps, but certainly 
on the institutions of Texas, especially on its 
system of jurisprudence. All the peculiar social 
forces that have helped to determine the life of 
the Province, the Republic, and the State must be 
included in accounting for the result as it exists. 
The Texas of to-day can be understood only through 
a knowledge of its development, the origin and 
external relations of which have been briefly pre- 
sented in this chapter. It now remains to consider 
a little more closely the process itself. 



CHAPTER II 

PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS OF THE TEXAS 
COUNTRY 

The land which now goes by the name of Texas 
is a district of irregular shape, 265,780 square 
miles in superficial area. It reaches from 26° to 
36° 30' north, and from 93° 30' to 106° 30' west. 
Its southeastern boundary is the shore of the Gulf 
of Mexico. In a geographical and topographical 
sense it consists of a number of belts or benches 
nearly parallel to the Gulf coast, each somewhat 
narrower in the middle than at the ends. The whole 
series rises gently northwestward to the great pla- 
teau of the Llano Estacado, the northern part of 
which reaches an elevation of over four thousand 
feet. The larger rivers of the district all have a 
general southeasterly direction. None of them is 
important for navigation. The flora and fauua 
are of a transitional type, between the character- 
istic forms of the Appalachian and the Cordilleran 
systems. There are immense forests of large tim- 
ber in eastern Texas, while in the central part are 
extensive prairies, and farther southwest and west 
is a comparatively barren strip lying along the Rio 
Grande and widening as it extends up the river. 
This strip is low and flat next the Gulf, but be- 



PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 11 

tween the Rio Grande and the Pecos it becomes 
broken and mountainous, some of its peaks being 
over nine thousand feet in height. A considerable 
part of the upper end of it is within the limits 
of New Mexico, while eastward of the upper Pecos 
it contains the plateau of the Llano Estacado 
already mentioned, of which the eastern half lies 
in Texas. Reaching northward between Oklahoma 
and New Mexico is the rectangular projection of 
Texas known as the Panhandle. The primary and 
evident adaptabilities of the section are for agricul- 
ture and stock raising ; but of its natural resources 
in detail there is more to be said later.^ 

It was nearly two hundred years after the dis- 
covery of America before this country had a name, 
or, in fact, boundaries definite enough to claim one. 
It might have been otherwise but for the fact that 
these were such busy centuries in Europe. Within 
less than two years after the first voyage of Colum- 
bus, France and Spain, which were just passing 
from feudal disorganization into the unity of na- 
tional statehood, began to match their new-born 
strength in a contest for possession of the weak 
and divided principalities of Italy. This contest 
was closely followed by a succession of confused 
and general European wars, due to the rivalry 
between the French kings and the Hapsburgs ; and 
these, through the working of the Reformation, 
were gradually converted into a series of religious 
struggles that ended only with the practical disso- 

^ In chapter xxiv. 



12 TEXAS 

lution of the Empire at the peace of Westphalia 
in 1648. In the same year that Cortes began the 
conquest of Mexico his youthful king became the 
emperor of Germany. Thenceforth Charles was 
too much engrossed in preserving and strengthen- 
ing his imperial inheritance from the Caesars to 
realize the splendid possibilities of America. His 
successor as king of Spain, Philip II., was not 
gifted with the ability to recognize great opportu- 
nities, and even if he could have understood that 
which he had in the New World he could never 
have improved it while he exhausted his resources 
in fighting the battles of Catholicism. During his 
reign the defeat of the Armada broke the power 
of Spain, its decline began, and its chance to win 
America became thereafter less and less ; but it 
still clung to the policy of wasting its strength in 
European wars and neglecting its interests in the 
West. Meanwhile England, wrestling with the 
devil and with itself, making martyrs alternately 
of Protestants and of Catholics, and fevered with 
the raging antipathy of Puritan and Cavalier, was 
passing through one of the most intense periods 
of its history. After the peace of Westphalia 
Europe had scarcely a breathing spell before the 
nations lying around France found it necessary to 
combine against the ambitious schemes of Louis 
XIV. One of these schemes it was, in fact, which 
roused a weak energy of expansion in New Spain 
and led finally to the birth of Texas in the latter 
years of the eighteenth century. 



PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 13 

During this interval, however, the Spanish ex- 
plorers, though working slowly, had not been alto- 
gether idle. Little by little the veil was lifted 
from the Southwest, and bit by bit the true geo- 
graphy of the Caribbean and Gulf and the adjacent 
lands was brought to light in the maps embodying 
the results of successive expeditions by sea and 
land. In his first voyage Columbus sailed for 
some distance along the northern coast of Cuba. 
In the third (1497) he reached the mainland of 
South America at the point where the line of 
the Lesser Antilles, the eastern limit of the Carib- 
bean, diverges from the coast. Two years later 
Ojeda followed the southern shore of this sea from 
there to Cape Vela, near the western boundary of 
the present Venezuela, and in the winter of 1500- 
1501 Bastidas and Cosa traced it thence to the 
Gulf of Darien. In his fourth voyage (1502) 
Columbus reached the coast of Honduras and 
passed along the shore of the Caribbean from 
there southeast to the Isthmus. In 1513 Ponce 
de Leon landed in Florida and gave it a name, 
and ran the entire length of the outer side of the 
peninsula and the inner as far up as Tampa Bay, 
and later in the same year Balboa crossed the Isth- 
mus and discovered the Pacific. In 1517 Fran- 
cisco Hernandez de Cordoba led from Cuba to Yu- 
catan a slave-hunting expedition, which sailed west 
and southwest along the coast of the Gulf to a 
point a little way beyond Campeche. The reports 
carried back to Cuba by the survivors of this expe- 



14 TEXAS 

dition led Governor Velasquez to fit out another, 
which he placed in charge of his nephew, Juan de 
Grijalva, and which was dispatched in 1518. Gri- 
jalva extended the exploration of the coast to the 
mouth of the river Panuco. In 1519 the remain- 
der of the Gulf shore, that is, the part lying be- 
tween the Panuco and the upper end of the Florida 
peninsula, was explored by Pineda, acting under 
the orders of Garay, governor of Jamaica. 

In the same year, 1519, Cortes began the con- 
quest of Mexico, and the city was finally taken in 
1521. By 1523 the whole country south, from 
Panuco on the Gulf coast and Colima near the 
Pacific to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, was under 
the control of the Spanish. 

The success of Cortes aroused the envy and jeal- 
ousy of many influential Spanish leaders, who 
wished to have the continuation of his enterprise 
committed to themselves. While their efforts at 
widening the area of the Spanish dominion were 
not brilliant with results, they succeeded in paralyz- 
ing his own ; and thus the work, that, under a com- 
petent general and with unity of plan, might have 
been accomplished in a few years, was spread over 
three centuries, and was never thoroughly done. 
It began on the Pacific coast and was gradually 
extended north and northeastward. The tide of 
conquest and political organization rolled with 
wearisome slowness towards the Rio Grande. One 
by one Nueva Vizcaya (from the northern part of 
which was later formed Chihuahua), New Mexico, 



PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 15 

Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon emerged into more or 
less definite provincial existence. But as the Span- 
ish arms and civilization came in closer contact 
with the wild and fierce Apaches and Comanches 
of the north, their progress became increasingly- 
difficult and uncertain ; and until within the last 
quarter of the seventeenth century there was no 
Spanish settlement east or north of the Rio Grande 
except Santa Fe, and no other, in fact, in the 
whole of the northern Gulf shore region between 
that and San Augustine on the eastern coast of 
Florida. 

During the earlier decades of the two hundred 
years while the New World Scythia beyond the 
Great River of the North was still left to the sav- 
age and the bison and whatever living thing the 
wilds had nourished, the Spanish imagination had 
flown thither and returned with tempting legends to 
invite the Spanish adventurer. The Indians told 
the conquerors, in language which they could but 
poorly understand, tales which must have been 
framed to meet the evident wishes of the hearers, 
and which were doubtless embellished on repetition 
to suit the designs of would-be adelantados. The 
atmosphere of New Spain was exceedingly favorable 
to the production of myths, and they grew rapidly ; 
the most important being that of the Seven Cities 
of Cibola in the unexplored country to the north, 
which were reported to be exceedingly rich and pop- 
ulous. This tale was much used by the enemies of 
Cortes to further their designs in opposition to his. 



16 TEXAS 

While the stoiy of the Seven Cities was on the 
tongue of every Spaniard in the land, there arrived 
in Mexico in the year 1536 three white men and a 
negro who told one of the most extraordinary tales 
of shipwreck, suffering, captivity, and ultimate es- 
cape that ever fell from mortal lips. The most 
prominent man of the party, Cabeza de Vaca, after- 
wards wrote a detailed account of his experiences. 
The four were survivors of the Narvaez expedition, 
which had been sent out from Spain to subdue and 
govern Florida, and the remnant of which had suf- 
fered shipwreck on the western shore of the Gulf 
in the year 1528. After an awful experience of 
about seven years in slavery among the Indians, 
they had run away and finally reached the Christian 
settlements in Mexico. They were apparently the 
first Europeans to tread the soil of Texas, and they 
brouofht the earliest information as to the inhabit- 
ants and the character of the yet unchristened 
land. 

To Cabeza de Vaca and his companions the coun- 
try was a part of Florida, which, by the commission 
of Narvaez, included the Gulf coast to the river 
Panuco ; but the remoteness of the Spanish settle- 
ment on the east, and especially the French seizure 
of the mouth of the Mississippi, naturally joined it, 
when possession was obtained, with New S^^ain. 

The four involuntary explorers who had come 
from beyond the Rio Grande had seen no rich and 
populous cities, but they had heard of some which 
had many people and very large houses. Though 



PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 17 

it was but little that they could add to the current 
story about Cibola, their coming aroused a new in- 
terest in it. The viceroy, Mendoza, sent a friar, 
Marcos de Niza, to ascertain if he could what truth 
there was in the tale. Niza went on this errand in 
the year 1539, leading a party which included the 
negro Stephen, one of the wanderers with Cabeza 
de Vaca. Starting from Culiacan on the Gulf of 
California, they traveled in a general northerly 
direction, and finally reached Cibola, which has 
been identified with one of the Zuni pueblos in 
western New Mexico. Stephen, who went in ad- 
vance, reached the pueblo, but was not allowed to 
enter, being lodged outside the walls. His miscon- 
duct aroused the hostility of the Indians, and they 
killed him. Niza, therefore, did not venture into 
Cibola, but only saw it from the top of a neighbor- 
ing hill. He went back, however, with extravagant 
accounts of the size and wealth of the place. It is 
difficult to believe that his description was not 
colored to suit the wishes of Mendoza and of Coro- 
nado, whose interest in the matter will appear be- 
low. 

The outcome was what Mendoza had planned, 
an expedition for the conquest of Cibola. Cortes 
desired to lead such an expedition himself, and so 
did Guzman and De Soto ; but the only effect of 
their efforts to secure the command was to prevent 
the appointment of any of them, and to leave the 
management in the hands of Mendoza, who ap- 
pointed as its leader Francisco Vasquez de Coro- 



18 TEXAS 

nado, governor of Nueva Galicla. In 1540 Coronado 
led forth from his province a strong and well- 
equipped force into the northern wilds. With his 
two years of wanderings and conquests and the dis- 
appointment of both himself and Mendoza over the 
unsubstantial results of the expedition, we have no- 
thing: here to do. The one fact to be noted in this 
connection is that his route must have carried him 
across the northern part of what is now Texas. 

Subsequently the country was penetrated by ex- 
plorers at various points while it was yet unsettled 
and nameless. De Soto must have passed through 
the northeastern part of it in 1542, and in 1582 and 
1590 respectively Espejo and Sosa penetrated to 
the valley of the Pecos from the west. In 1601 
and agfain in 1611 Governor Onate of New Mexico 
made expeditions eastward which must have carried 
him into Texas ; and in a little more than four 
decades after the latter date there had been made 
from the same province, according to the records, a 
half dozen visits or entradas directed towards the 
country of the Jumanas and the Quiviras that could 
not have failed to lead the padres or soldiers who 
undertook them through the same section. An 
entrada of 1650, led by Captains Hernan Martin 
and Diego del Castillo, is said to have penetrated to 
the Tejas tribe of Indians ; and in another in 1G84 
Padre Nicolas Lopez and Captain Juan Domingo 
de Mendoza conducted a party of missionaries and 
soldiers from El Paso down the Rio Grande to the 
mouth of the Conchos and thence into the interior 



PRE-COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS 19 

across the Pecos to a rancheria of Jumanas and 
Hediondas. 

Before this time there had been established the 
oldest town within the present limits of Texas. 
Simply because it is the oldest, it deserves a pass- 
ing notice. It began as a village of Tiguex Indians, 
who were friendly to the Spanish, and who were 
driven from Isleta in New Mexico by the rising of 
1680. They were settled by Governor Otermin in 
a pueblo which was within twelve miles of El Paso, 
and which was also called Isleta ^ after the name of 
the New Mexican settlement the Indians had been 
forced to abandon. It could have had no Spaniards 
among its population other than one or two padres, 
and for this reason it cannot be properly regarded 
as a Spanish colony. It has had no important share 
in the life of Texas, which has grown from another 
quarter ; but it has had a continuous existence dat- 
ing from the year 1682. 

^ In the spelling' of this name as applied to the town in Texas, 
the old form, Ysleta, has prevailed. 



CHAPTER III 

ENCKOACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH 

Fort Saint Louis 

The delay of the Spanish was the opportunity of 
the French. During the two centuries of slow and 
feeble advance by their rivals in the Southwest, 
they found their way along the St. Lawrence to 
the Great Lakes and down the Mississij^pi to the 
door that Spain had left ajar. In 1535 Cartier 
sailed up the former river till he was stopped by 
the rapids now known by the name of Lachine. 
One by one the lakes were discovered, and in 1673 
Joliet and Marquette made their way from Green 
Bay on Lake Michigan, by Fox River and Lake 
Winnebago, after a short portage, to the Wiscon- 
sin, and thence to the Mississippi. They followed 
this river as far down as the mouth of the Arkan- 
sas, and then, for fear of the Spaniards, went back 
the way they had come. But La Salle, starting 
with a party of about fifty followers in December, 
1681, passed from Lake Michigan by way of the 
Chicago and the Illinois to the Mississippi, and 
in the spring of 1682 reached its mouth. Elated 
by what he called his discovery, and ignorant or 
regardless of the fact that the Spaniards had antici- 



ENCROACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH 21 

pated him therein by about a century and a half, 
he called the country Louisiana and claimed it for 
France. Then, as early as possible, he made his 
way to Paris with the purpose of organizing an ex- 
pedition to return and secure possession of the long 
neglected land. Louis XIV. was just at that time 
nearing the high tide of his aggressive policy. He 
had men and money to employ in extending French 
power and influence in any part of the world, and 
it was not difficult for the enthusiastic explorer to 
obtain a share for use in seizing the Mississippi 
valley and subduing the Spanish colonies in New 
Spain. 

In the summer of 1684 La Salle started back to 
America. The king had given him more ships 
than he had asked, and had put in charge of one 
of them a captain of the royal navy. This man, by 
name Beaujeu, though under La Salle's orders, was 
the better seaman of the two, and did not hesitate 
to quarrel with his suspicious and irritable chief, 
and between them they brought the undertaking to 
disastrous ends. It was the intention of La Salle 
to establish a fortified post near the mouth of the 
Mississippi, that would control the navigation of 
the river and thus give security to French settle- 
ments in the upper part of the valley ; but he 
missed his destination, and, after various mishaps, 
landed early in the year 1685 at what is now Mata- 
gorda Bay on the coast of Texas. This, in spite of 
evidence to the contrary, he took for one of the 
mouths of the Mississippi ; so he established on 
the shore a temporary camp. 



22 TEXAS 

La Salle had started with four ships. One was 
captured by Spanish buccaneers in the West Indies, 
one was wrecked in seeking to enter the bay, and 
soon after the landing Beaujeu sailed for France 
with the third and most important, thus leaving 
but one for the service of the colony. 

It was soon ascertained that the bay on which 
the French had landed had no connection with the 
Mississippi. It therefore became necessary to select 
a better location for the quarters to be occupied 
until the original destination could be discovered, 
and the party conveyed thither. The choice fell 
on what La Salle considered a satisfactory spot, 
about six miles from the head of the bay on a river 
emptying therein. 

The river on which the settlement was fixed La 
Salle called La Vache, and the Spaniards, with 
unusual tolerance, simply translated the name into 
Lavaca, and continued to use it. The fort built 
for the defense of the colonists he called by his 
favorite name, St, Louis, which he had given to 
another establishment planted by himself on the 
Illinois River in 1682, and which he gave also to 
the neighboring bay. The Spanish, however, gave 
the bay to which their attention was drawn by this 
settlement the name of Espiritu Santo, and some- 
times they called it alternatively San Bernardo. 

As the buildings at St. Louis went up, disease 
was busy among the colonists, and before the end 
of the first summer thirty of them had embarked 
for the final voyage of all mankind. The reader, 



ENCROACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH 23 

sitting secure and afraid neither " for the pestilence 
that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction 
that wasteth at noonday," will be, perhaps, little 
moved by the recital of this fact ; but when the 
imagination restores the true original color of the 
picture it becomes heart-breaking. With constant 
toil and privation the lot of all ; with treacherous 
and cruel Indian enemies always at hand ; with the 
outraged Spanish expected day by day ; with escape 
impossible ; and with Death, meanwhile, making his 
ceaseless round from couch to couch, what more 
could men have been expected to do and suffer? 
Yet this was but the prelude to a more heroic his- 
tory, in which desperate courage and unfailing 
endurance, self-devotion untainted by self-seeking, 
and self-sacrifice without the hope of reward became 
almost too common to invite attention and record. 
Moreover, the pitiful truth, which must be told, is 
that those who were buried at Fort St. Louis dur- 
ing that fatal summer of 1685 were most of them 
victims, not of hardship nor of an insalubrious cli- 
mate, but of their own beastly self-indulgence ; and 
that the colonists, whose sufferings might win them 
so much sympathy had they deserved it, were few 
of them worthy of respect. Joutel, the historian 
of the expedition, and himself a member of the 
company, says, " they had all been caught by force 
or surprise ; " and some of them proved themselves 
in the course of time to be most absolute villains. 

When the colonists had been sufficiently pro- 
vided with shelter and protection from enemies, 



24 TEXAS 

La Salle set out to find the Mississippi. He left 
in October, 1685, and returned in March, 1686, but 
without having accomplished his object. In April, 
1686, he started on a second journey, aiming to 
make his way in search of help by the Mississippi 
and the Illinois to Canada. He reached the Cenis ^ 
Indians, a tribe belonging to the group known as 
the Tejas, on the Trinity River, where he was 
attacked by a fever that delayed him two months ; 
and when he recovered he found it necessary to 
return to Fort St. Louis. In January, 1687, he 
went forth to make another attempt to reach 
Canada, and had gone nearly as far as in the jour- 
ney previous when he was assassinated by some 
malcontents among his men. 

The settlement at Fort St. Louis survived about 
two years longer. When the Spaniards finally 
reached the spot, in the year 1689, they found the 
buildings empty, and looking as if they had been 
plundered but a short time before. Three dead 
bodies, one of them that of a woman, lay on the 
adjacent prairie. Four men who had belonged to 
the colony were found among the Indians in the 
neighborhood with a small party of roving Tejas, 
and they reported that the destruction was the work 
of a band of savages. 

Thus came to its end in disastrous failure the first 
European settlement made on the soil of Texas. 
It was the outcome of a bold and splendid plan 
soon afterwards consummated in the French pos- 

^ Called by the Spanish Asinais. 



ENCROACHMENTS OF THE FRENCH 25 

session of Louisiana. Its founder was one of the 
foremost of those brave spirits who, working, as is 
the common lot of heroes, not for themselves but 
for all mankind, tracked the far-reaching and per- 
ilous wilds of interior North America and won a 
continent for civilization. But misfortune seems 
to have usurped the seat of its tutelary genius, and 
given it ruin and desolation for its prayers. 



CHAPTER IV 

COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH, AND THE 
BEGINNINGS OF TEXAS 

Mission San Francisco de las Tejas 

The capture of a French vessel on the coast 
of Yucatan had given the Spaniards information 
of La Salle's coming and stimulated them to make 
some efforts to defeat his plans. The viceroy 
strengthened the northeastern frontier of Mexico 
b)'^ the establishment of a villa and presidio at 
Monclova in Coahuila ; the one, as judged by pre- 
vailing Spanish standards, very populous, and the 
other unusually formidable. Two hundred and fifty 
families were sent to the villa, and the garrison 
numbered two hundred and seventy. During the 
next three years four expeditions by sea were sent 
from Vera Cruz to search for the French colony 
and destroy it. They found the wrecks of two of 
the ships which had helped to bring it, but St. Louis 
itself, not lying exactly on the coast, they missed. 
At the same time a search by land was instituted. 
By order of the vicei'oy of New Spain, Governor De 
Aguayo of Nuevo Leon sent a company of cavalry 
under Captain Alouso de Leon to follow the coast 
along from Tampico northward and try to find the 



COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH 27 

intruding Frenchmen. This detachment passed 
the Rio Grande and came to another river, which 
the Spaniards called the Solo. It widened at its 
mouth into a lake, which they could not pass, and 
they returned without news of the French. An- 
other expedition under De Leon terminated at the 
same point, and brought back no further informa- 
tion. By this time the impression began to exist 
in New Spain that the whole story about a French 
colony on the bay of Espiritu Santo was without 
foundation ; but there still came reports of white 
men who were said to be living in that quarter, and 
by and by an old Frenchman, naked and painted 
like the savages, was found among them and car- 
ried to Mexico. This roused a new interest in the 
matter, and the viceroy determined to send an 
expedition which should penetrate to the bay and 
ascertain the facts. He dispatched, therefore, in 
the year 1689, eighty men under De Leon accom- 
panied by a Franciscan padre named Manzanet, 
who played an important part in the events which 
followed. This party finally reached Fort St. 
Louis and found, as has been told already, that 
the colony had been destroyed by the Indians. 
The mission of De Leon was now accomplished ; 
but plans were soon devised for a fourth expedi- 
tion, which should leave permanent Si3anish estab- 
lishments in the country, and thus forestall its 
occupation by the French, The Indians in the 
vicinity of Fort St. Louis had reported that there 
was among them a small band of Tejas led by the 



28 TEXAS 

governor of these Indians and accompanied by four 
Frenchmen.^ These Tejas were a long way from 
home, for their people lived on the upper Neches 
and the Trinity in what is now known as " East 
Texas." De Leon before returning south secured 
an interview with them and took two of the French- 
men, who had adopted Indian ways, into custody. 
But Padre Manzanet, after some encouraging 
words from the governor of the Tejas in response 
to his exhortation, promised to come again to his 
jDeople the next year and bring other priests like 
himself. 

As a result of this expedition there were sev- 
eral meetings of the viceroy and other prominent 
men in Mexico to devise measures to Christianize 
the Indians in the country just coming into notice, 
and keep out the French. De Leon and Manza- 
net were sent for and interviewed on the subject 
by the viceroy. The captain seems to have dwelt 
on the fact that there was said to be settled among 
the Tejas a considerable number of Frenchmen, 
who might be reinforced by their countrymen and 
do much harm to Spanish interests ; while the 
padre emphasized the desirability of mission work 
among the Indians, who had expressed their will- 
ingness to receive priests and hear the gospel. It 
was finally decided to send De Leon back with one 
hundred and ten soldiers to destroy the fortifica- 
tions at St. Louis and make a thorough search for 
Frenclimen, and with him were to go Manzanet and 
three other padres as missionaries to the Tejas. 
1 See p. 25. 



COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH 29 

The expedition started from Coahuila in March, 
1690. It arrived duly at the deserted fort, to 
which Manzanet, as he states with evident satisfac- 
tion in his account of the journey, set fire with his 
own hand. Then the party set out for the country 
of the Tejas. On the way they recovered from the 
Indians a young man and a boy who had belonged 
to La Salle's company, and further along they en- 
countered the governor of the Tejas, who had come 
out to meet them. They provided him with cloth- 
ing, as Manzanet puts it, " that his people might 
see how highly we thought of him." Three days 
later they entered his village. 

Soon after reaching the Tejas the padres began 
to look for a suitable spot on which to locate a 
church. During this search they were shown a 
place which they were told the French had selected 
for their settlement, and they saw there the bodies 
of two Frenchmen who had shot each other. By 
and by they found a satisfactory location, and in 
three days they had erected a church and a 
dwelling for the priests. With the celebration of 
masses, the firing of royal salutes, and the chant- 
ing of Te Deums the church and villages were 
dedicated to the founder of the order to which the 
padres belonged, and the mission thus established 
was known by the name of San Francisco de los 
Tejas. Three padres with three soldiers were left 
in charge, and De Leon, Manzanet, and the rest 
went back the way they had come. 

The history of Mission San Francisco de los 



30 TEXAS 

Tejas is shorter In time, but hardly less abundant 
in misfortune, than that of Fort St. Louis. The 
padres founded another small establishment near 
by and worked zealously, but their experiences in- 
cluded drought and overflow, ruining the harvests 
and followed by famine and pestilence. The In- 
dians refused to live in communities, and the sol- 
diers became unmanageable and outrageous in 
their conduct. Finally the viceroy ordered the 
abandonment of the mission, and in October, 1693, 
the padres and soldiers buried whatever property 
they could not carry away with them and departed. 
Only one of the Spaniards had died there, but they 
had little more real success to boast of than the 
French. The mission was revived in 1716 under 
the name of San Francisco de los Neches, and in 
1730 it was transferred to the San Antonio River, 
where it became known as San Francisco de la 
Espada.^ 

The exact locality of San Francisco de los Tejas 
is now unknown. It was somewhere between the 
Trinity and the Neches, probably near the latter, 
about forty-five miles in a southwesterly direction 
from the present town of Nacogdoches. The 
wooden buildings, altogether different from the im- 
posing and substantial structures erected further 
west, where stone was almost necessarily used and 
where the builders had more time for their work, 
soon disappeared, and nothing was left to mark 
the spot. It might possibly, however, by a careful 
2 See p. 71. 



COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH 31 

examination of the records and the ground and 
comparison of the facts, be even yet identified. 

In 1691 another expedition was led to the north- 
eastern frontier by Captain Domingo Teran. It 
was organized in two divisions, one going by land 
and the other by sea. The first division consisted 
of fifty soldiers, nine priests, and a number of 
attendants, etc. ; the second was made up of forty 
seamen. The purpose of this entrada was to 
strengthen the missions already existing and to 
establish others, to look for Frenchmen or any 
foreigners who might be found among the Indians, 
and to learn as much as possible about the country 
and the natives. Captain Teran accompanied the 
division that went by land, and with it was also 
Padre Manzanet in the capacity of commissary. 
The history of the expedition is the same old story 
of mismanagement and misfortune so common in 
the chronicles of Spanish efforts at colonization. 
To mischievous dissensions between Teran and 
Manzanet was added failure to accomplish the 
junction of the land and the sea divisions until the 
summer was past, and the whole force did not start 
from Mission San Francisco de los Tejas for its 
objective point, the country of the Cadodachos, 
until near the opening of winter. The destination 
was reached,^ but Teran did little in fulfillment of 
his instructions from the viceroy. Both going and 
returning his men suffered greatly from cold and 
hunger, and it was fortunate enough for them that 
^ The expedition penetrated apparently to Red River. 



32 TEXAS 

they were allowed to go back home by way of 
Espiritu Santo and the Gulf rather than overland. 
The attention drawn to the land beyond the Rio 
Grande by the establishment of Fort St. Louis 
and the resulting Spanish entradas gave it at 
last a name, Tejas, or, in the usual English form, 
Texas.^ The Indians called by this name had a 
considerable degree of civilization and a pretty 
well-defined locality.' The tribes between it and 
the Rio Grande, as it appeared to the Spanish in 
their five entradas^ were insignificant in their 
numbers and roving in their habits. Manzanet 
remarks that in 1690 De Leon's company did not 
find a single Indian between the Rio Grande and 
the land of the Tejas. They had observed no nat- 
ural feature that had so impressed them as to make 
them call the country by its name. There were in 
the district they had traversed but two important 
localities for which they had specific designations : 
Espiritu Santo, and Texas, the country of the In- 
dians among whom the mission had been estab- 
lished. They manifested no desire to repeat the 
French experiment of a settlement on the bay, or 

^ The manuscripts vary with little partiality between Tejas and 
Texas ; but the earliest English books in which the name occurs, 
such as Vi]s.e''s Expeditions and the translation known as Hum- 
boldt's New Spain, use only the form Texas. This has fixed the 
spelling of the name as applied to the land ; but the name of the 
Indians is usually spelled Tejas. In one or two other Texas names 
in the spelling of which the same alternatives once prevailed, the 
X has finally triumphed entirely, e. g. Bexar and Mexia ; the first 
of these two, however, is perhaps better written B^jar for the 
peiiod previous to the Revolution. 



COUNTER-EXPEDITIONS OF THE SPANISH 33 

the State migbt now be known by a name alto- 
gether too sacred for its busy secular habits. After 
the expedition of 1689 there was but one people 
in the country it penetrated of whom the Span- 
iards in Mexico thought seriously, and that was 
the Tejas Indians ; but one district there, besides 
Espiritu Santo, of which they talked, and that was 
the country of the same Indians, which they called 
Texas. If the evidence of one of the missionaries 
can be accepted, — and there seems no good reason 
to the contrary, — Tejas was the name, not of a 
single tribe, but of a confederacy of nearly thirty, 
including the nine tribes of the Asinais or Cenis, 
It was but natural that this name should be ex- 
tended to the whole region, theretofore without one 
of its own. Nuevas Filipinas, which was for some 
time the official designation, was not sufficiently 
upon the popular tongue, and was at length dis- 
placed entirely by Texas. 




CHAPTER V 

RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 

* Expedition of Saint-Denis 

The danger of occupation by the French having 
disappeared for the time, the Spanish at once 
relapsed into their customary neglect, and for more 
than twenty years little attention was given to 
Texas. The work of founding missions, converting 
the Indians, and widening the limits of actual 
Spanish occupation was not entirely suspended ; 
but while the occasion demanded energy and haste, 
it was answered with the neglect and tardiness of 
blind security. The most noteworthy outcome of 
such effort as was made was the establishment, in 
the year 1700, of the mission of San Juan Bautista 
near the Rio Grande, which remained for fifteen 
years the Spanish outpost in the direction of Texas, 
and which accordingly, when the movement for the 
occupation of that country was renewed, became 
a very important centre. 

Again the principal explanation of Spanish dila- 
toriness is to be found in Europe. The aggressions 
of Louis XIV. caused an organization among the 
German princes to resist him, and finally led to a 
war which began with a French invasion of Ger- 



RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 35 

many in 1688 and raged fiercely, keeping the whole 
of western Europe busy, till the peace of Ryswick 
in 1697. The next four years were spent by the 
powers in diplomatic chess-play and preparation for 
another war which was evidently impending, and 
which bade fair to be still bloodier and more pro- 
longed. It came according to expectation, and ful- 
filled its worst promises of evil. Its causes were 
sufficient, as they must be estimated by the historian 
who is experienced in weighing the motives which 
produce war ; for the Spanish empire, which hardly 
more than a century previous had been the mighti- 
est power of Europe, was becoming unable to hold 
together and protect itself, and the nations waited 
impatiently, France the most eager of all, for the 
struggle over the spoils to begin. The death of the 
childless king Charles II. in 1700 was the signal 
for the outbreak, and the contention was ended only 
by the treaties of Utrecht and Baden, concluded 
respectively in the years 1713 and 1714. 

Leaving out of the question, therefore, the rela- 
tive inertness and inefficiency of the Spanish as 
colonizers, it is not difficult to understand why 
Spain did not anticipate France in securing the 
mouth of the Mississippi, and why she did not take 
firm hold of Texas at once. During the first decade 
after the founding of the mission among the Tejas, 
she was practically without a king, and during a 
large part of the next thirteen years her people 
were divided between two rival sovereigns backed, 
the one by France, and the other by the allies in 



36 TEXAS 

opposition. The eagle, sick and attacked in its own 
nest, coukl not fly abroad in search of prey. 

France made good use of the iutervak She was 
busy enough at home, it is true ; but her resources 
had been nursed into a marvelous development by 
Colbert, and she still had men and supplies to send 
to America. Had she not been matched, for the 
moment, against almost the whole of Europe, it is 
possible that she might have established herself in 
Louisiana for all time. But the nearer and more 
glittering prize tempted the ambition of the king 
of France, and led him to waste his strength in 
contending for the mastery of the Old World. It 
was no quixotic folly that led William of Orange 
to enter on his desperate struggle with Louis XIV. ; 
for it now looks to the historian as if the work of 
subverting European liberty, in which Napoleon 
afterwards failed, was about to be done before his 
time. But even the farsighted William builded 
wiser than he knew. Neither he nor Louis could 
understand that the premature snatch at empire by 
France was only making opportunity for England, 
and that the cost of the southern Netherlands and 
Franche-Comt^, and the Bourbon inheritance in 
Spain, would be the loss of Texas first, and finally 
of Louisiana, of Canada, and of India. 

The peace of Ryswick was hardly more than 
concluded when France took advantage of the lull 
in military operations to make good her possession 
of Louisiana. In 1699 an expedition led by Iber- 
ville established a French colony at Old Biloxi, 



RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 37 

west of Mobile Bay, and from that time dates the 
permanent settlement of the country. In 1718 New 
Orleans was founded, and the work which La Salle 
had planned, in which he had labored and suffered 
with such heroism, and which had finally cost him 
his life, was done at length. The French had ob- 
tained control of the great river's mouth, and thus, 
in some degree, of the vast basin which it drains. 
If the results were less than he had hoped, if France 
won Louisiana from Spain only to pass it on to 
England and the American heirs of England by 
and by, this was not his fault ; it was simply 
because Louis XIV. unconsciously sacrificed an 
imperial future in pursuing the phantom of an 
imperial present. 

France, however, had been none too prompt in 
the occupation of Louisiana, for a more energetic 
rival than Spain was now contesting for the same 
prize. Soon after the settlement had been made 
at Old Biloxi, an English ship, one of the three 
that had been sent out on the same errand as the 
expedition of Iberville, was found by the command- 
ant Bienville in the Mississippi ; and its captain 
was induced to leave only by being assured that the 
French were able to expel him. 

The period between the peace of Eyswick and 
the beginning of the war of the Spanish Succession 
is marked by a complete change in the relations of 
the two powers that were now face to face on the 
shore of the Gulf of Mexico. Previous to this, 
Spain had been, from motives of self-protection and 



38 TEXAS 

from the common European interest, an enemy of 
France ; and La Salle, when seeking to obtain from 
Louis XIV. the necessary equipment for his expe- 
dition to colonize Louisiana in 1684, had sought 
the king's favor for his enterprise by framing- 
plausible schemes for the conquest of the Si3anish 
mining province of New Biscay from Louisiana as 
a base. But when England, France, and Holland 
undertook to dispose of the Spanish inheritance by 
a partition treaty, the wounded pride of Charles II. 
rejected the arrangement and detached Louis XIV. 
from it by bequeathing to his second grandson 
the Spanish territory undivided. In the war of the 
Spanish Succession, therefore, which followed the 
death of Charles II., the sympathies of most of 
the people of Spain were with France, and the 
formal relations of the French and Spanish colo- 
nies in America became peaceful. 

Meanwhile, however, the French had done much 
towards building up their new colony. The life of 
their settlements depended in large measure on their 
trade with the Indians, and this trade they wisely 
sought to attract and foster by all possible means. 
Finally, in 1712, Louis XIV. granted a monopoly 
of the Louisiana trade to Antoine Crozat for fifteen 
years, and the event was followed by the inaugura- 
tion of a commercial activity in that colony that 
became the occasion of a new turn in the history of 
Texas. It was, of course, not difficult for an alert 
man of business like Crozat to see that much would 
be gained by adding a trade with the neighboring 



RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 39 

Spanish colonies to that with the Indians, and to 
this end his policy was directed. His plans were 
furthered and his work greatly facilitated by the 
active cooperation of Governor Lamothe Cadillac, 
the official representative of the home government 
and special trustee of its interests in Louisiana, who 
became by his action in this case, as the sequel will 
show, the agent in delivering possession of Texas 
to the Spanish. 

In 1713 Cadillac, in accordance with the desire 
of Crozat, sent a ship to Vera Cruz for the purpose 
of opening a trade with Mexico ; but even the im- 
proved diplomatic relations of France and Spain 
could hardly be expected to admit of the growth of 
a direct commerce between their colonies. Spain 
especially was exceedingly jealous of her monopoly 
of her American colonial trade. Consent to any 
treaty stipulation in breach of it had to be wrung 
from her by war, and was given in much the same 
spirit in which she would have surrendered a 
conquered province. The viceroy rejected all the 
overtures of Cadillac, and the expedition was fruit- 
less. 

The ojjportunity desired by Crozat and Cadillac 
now appeared in another quarter. Fray Francisco 
Hidalgo, who had worked at the short-lived mission 
of San Francisco de los Tejas, and had afterwards 
helped to establish that of San Juan Bautista near 
the Rio Grande, had still later returned to the scene 
of his earlier labors in Texas, and had remained for 
several years as a missionary among the Asinais. 



40 TEXAS 

During this time he and his co-workers of San Juan 
Bautista had been constant in their appeals to the 
viceroy to reoccupy the country of the Tejas, aban- 
doned by the friars in 1693, where Padre Hi- 
dalgo himself was doing such effective work for 
Catholicism and for Spain by teaching the Indians 
and winning a secure influence over them, against 
the day of threatened French encroachment. But 
it was impossible to inspire the authorities in 
Mexico with the enthusiasm of the Franciscans, 
and after long and impatient waiting, Hidalgo, like 
Cadillac, laid aside his patriotism for the moment, 
and in his excess of religious zeal appealed for help 
to the French. Early in 1711 he wrote a letter to 
the governor of Louisiana inviting his cooj^eration 
in the establishment of a mission among the Asi- 
nals. In the course of time the letter was received 
by Cadillac, and the invitation was responded to 
with a promptness in sharp contrast with the Span- 
ish neglect. The details of Hidalgo's proposition 
are not known, but it involved in some way the 
suggestion of an experiment at an intercolonial 
trade to be carried on through Texas, of which the 
governor was quick to take advantage. He sent 
out a French expedition, whose general object was 
evidently to try such an experiment. How far the 
results that followed were foreseen it is not easy to 
say ; for the plan was largely clandestine, and the 
statements contained in the documents as to the 
purposes of the expedition are evidently not frank. 
It may be that all was anticipated substantially as 



RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 41 

it happened — that Hidalgo was willing to let the 
French enjoy even an illicit commerce with Mexico, 
if that would facilitate his mission work among the 
Indians, and that Cadillac was indifferent to the 
Spanish possession of Texas if a chain of settle- 
ments could be made through which trade might 
pass from the Eed River to the Rio Grande. If 
these were their respective views, then neither could 
have been greatly surprised or disappointed by the 
outcome. 

The leader chosen for the expedition was Louis 
Juchereau de Saint-Denis.^ He was doubtless the 
best available man for the place. He had previ- 
ously led parties into Texas, knew both the Span- 
ish language and that of the Indians, and was 
experienced in dealing with the natives. Already 
he had played a more important part in extending 
the French explorations and settlement on the 
western border of Louisiana than any other man 
in the colony. Early in the spring of 1700 he had 
accompanied Bienville up Red River to the village 
of the Yatase Indians, where they heard from some 
visiting Cadclos a report of the existence of a Span- 
ish settlement five days' journey towards the west. 
The records, however, furnish no other evidence of 
any such settlement in Texas at the time. About 
two months later Saint-Denis ascended the river 
again, passing through the country of the Natchi- 
toches, and reaching finally that of the Cadclos. 

^ This Saint-Denis must be carefully distinguished from his 
older brother, who worked mainly in the Ohio valley. 



42 TEXAS 

Here the Indians told liira that they had seen no 
Spanish for more than two years. About 1705, if 
his own statement to the Mexican authorities is not 
misunderstood, he must have crossed Texas to the 
Rio Grande, but of the details of the expedition 
nothing is known. So, when the call from Cadillac 
came to him in 1713, he doubtless felt that the 
enterprise that was to be committed to his charge 
was one for which he had already paved the way. 
/ Previous to starting on the expedition Saint- 
Denis made an agreement with Cadillac, and 
obtained from him a passport. The two instru- 
ments taken together, the latter being read between 
the lines, indicate clearly enough the real nature of 
the work that Saint-Denis had undertaken. He 
agreed to carry goods to the value of ten thousand 
livres out of the stock of Crozat and try to dispose 
of them in Mexico. His passport stated that he 
was to take twenty-four men and as many Indians 
as needed, to search for the mission of Hidalgo, 
and there to buy horses and cattle for the Louisi- 
ana colony. 

The expedition started from Mobile in the late 
summer or the early fall of 1713, but was delayed 
several months at Biloxi, and probably did not 
enter Texas until some time in 1714. It consisted 
of five canoes, laden with men and goods, and the 
route was up the Mississippi and the lied River to 
the country of the Natchitoches, and thence west to 
that of the Asinais. At the village of the Natchi- 
toches where the overland march began, Saint- 



RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 43 

Denis stored the goods and left ten men to guard 
them. Then, adding thirty Natchitoches Indians 
to his force, he proceeded to the Asinais, where he 
spent six months trading with the Indians, taking 
horses, cattle, and buffalo hides in exchange for 
guns, beads, knives, and cloth. During this period 
he made a trip back to the Natchez to report to 
Cadillac and bring more goods. 

Unconsciously the Asinais lent themselves as 
instruments to Saint-Denis's policy. He found 
among them well-marked traces of Hidalgo's work, 
and the Indians were anxious to have the zealous 
padre among them again. Their desires concurred, 
at least in some degree, with the aims of Saint- 
Denis ; so, when they besought him to ask the mis- 
sionaries, and especially Hidalgo, to come back to 
them, he took their governor and twenty-five men 
to act as guides, and set out towards the Rio 
Grande, apparently to do as they wished. After 
six weeks' marching, in the course of which the 
party fought and defeated a band of Indians hos- 
tile to the Asinais, they arrived at the presidio of 
the Rio Grande, or the mission of San Juan Bau- 
tista, two leagues from the river on the Mexican 
side, and some thirty-five miles below the site of 
the present Eagle Pass. 

How far the real objects of the expedition were 
stated to the commander of the presidio. Captain 
Diego Ramon, or to what extent he penetrated the 
designs of Saint-Denis, is not clear. His action was 
such as would seem to have been wisest in any case. 



44 TEXAS 

He treated the Frenchmen well, but detained them 
until he could get instructions to fit the case from 
the viceroy. 

Meanwhile Saint-Denis contrived to send a letter 
to Cadillac informing him of the state of affairs, 
expressing confidence as to the outcome, and indi- 
cating the writer's hope that his services in connec- 
tion with the enterprise would secure him the pat- 
ronage of the governor. And for the tedium and 
suspense of waiting for the viceroy's answer, he 
found relief in the company of the granddaughter 
of Captain Diego Ramon, to whom he soon became 
engaged. Before he returned finally to Louisiana 
they were married ; and some historians, in dealing 
with this episode of the expedition of Saint-Denis, 
have so far lost the perspective that they have 
allowed the real significance of his woi'k to be ob- 
scured by the incidental romance. 

By and by a guard from Coahuila was sent to 
conduct Saint-Denis to the city of Mexico. Even 
before the news from the presidio of the Rio 
Grande had reached the viceroy, he had heard 
from the Spanish at Pensacola of the coming of 
the expedition. But there were evidently private 
suggestions that the entrada was in no spirit of 
hostility to the Spanish interests, or at any rate 
that Saint-Denis himself had no such motive. The 
representative of the outraged majesty of Spain did 
not fling the French adventurer into a dungeon, as 
might have been expected, but simi^ly questioned 
him closely as to his objects and requested him to 



RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 45 

make a written statement of them. This was given 
to Espinosa, the fiscal, in order that he might report 
thereon to a council which was held soon after to 
consider it. 

Though Saint-Denis had told, in his declaracion^ 
less than half the truth, it contained enough to set 
the Spaniards thinking. Espinosa saw and set 
forth clearly in his report the danger in the situa- 
tion. They were threatened with French encroach- 
ment, the loss of the northern trade, and the dis- 
covery of their precious mines. To prevent all 
this, he recommended that the governors of the ex- 
posed pi'ovinces be directed to keep out the French, 
and that the missions in that quarter be rees- 
tablished. The council, in accordance with his 
report, planned an expedition to establish four 
missions among the Tejas Indians. Thenceforth 
the French were to be more strictly watched, and 
any attempt at encroachment reported promptly. 

The expedition was organized under the leader- 
ship of Captain Domingo Ramon, son of the gov- 
ernor of the presidio. The strength of it was, to 
all appearances, contemptibly inadequate for the 
work in hand. Besides Ramon, his son Diego, and 
Saint-Denis, of whose place in the company I shall 
have more to say presently, there were only twenty- 
two soldiers. This little force would hardly have 
been regarded as sufficient to secure the defense 
of such a distant and exposed frontier if there had 
been any reason to expect hostility on the part of 
those against whom the barrier was to be erected. 



46 TEXAS 

The party included twelve friars, besides three lay 
brothers, and a number of civilians. In all there 
were sixty-five. It is worth noting, however, that 
there were a few families and several married men 
whose wives had come with them. Small as the 
colony was, it was better suited for permanence than 
any the Spanish had previously sent into the north- 
eastern wilds. 

An interesting fact, and one not entirely expli- 
cable from the records, is that Saint-Denis accom- 
panied the expedition as an important salaried offi- 
cial. The contemporary accounts do not speak 
with one voice as to his duties. They call him now 
caho coniboyador (chief of convoy) and again con- 
ductor de viveres (quartermaster) ; possibly he per- 
formed both functions. In any case, it seems that 
he was quite helpful to the Spanish ; and one can 
scarcely doubt that he was regarded as a sort of 
personal pledge of French acquiescence in their 
designs. It is, however, difficult to acquit him of 
double-dealing. On at least two occasions while 
he was seeking to ingratiate himself with the Span- 
ish and induce them to undertake the reoccupation 
of Texas, once while he was at Presidio del Rio 
Grande, and again when he was in the city of 
Mexico, he contrived to send to Governor Cadillac 
information as to the course of his affairs ; and in 
the latter case he gave warning of the expected 
Spanish entrada and proposed a counter-expedition 
to Espiritu Santo Bay. And while in his state- 
ment to the viceroy he enlarged on the desirability 



RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 47 

of fixing the boundary between the French and the 
Spanish at tlie Mississippi, in his letter to Cadillac 
from Mexico he favored placing it at the Rio 
Grande. 

In January, 1716, Cadillac wrote that he had in- 
formation from Saint-Denis in Mexico of the inten- 
tion of the Spanish to make a settlement among 
the Natchitoches, and that he would instruct him 
to oppose it, because that country belonged to the 
French king ; he did not, however, indicate his 
plan in case they confined themselves, as in fact 
they did, to the valley of the Sabine. In 1721 
Bienville declared, in a protest against the Spanish 
settlement at Adaes, that when he gave permission 
to the missionaries to establish themselves there it 
was with the assurance from them that they meant 
only to found a mission and preach the gospel. 
This is no doubt true, and it is possible that the 
assurance was suggested by Saint-Denis himself. 
It indicates that Bienville, who was keenly alive to 
the interests of France, saw no danger to those in- 
terests in having Spanish settlements so near the 
border if they were purely missions ; but it is diffi- 
cult to see how he could entertain such views. And 
as for Saint-Denis, to acquit him of treachery to 
France on that supposition is impossible. He was 
too evidently moved by other considerations. 

Considerable light on the real nature of Saint- 
Denis's designs and on the relations that existed 
subsequently between the French and Spanish along 
the Texas border, and between the missionaries and 



48 TEXAS 

the Spanish officials, is reflected backward by some 
correspondence that took place in the year 1719 
between Benard de la Harpe, who had just estab- 
lished a French post among the Nassonites on Red 
Eiver above Natchitoches, and Padre Margil,^ supe- 
rior o£ the Texas missions. La Harpe wrote a most 
cordial letter to the good father, professing great 
reverence for him, and an earnest desire that they 
should maintain perfect harmony which should be 
useful in upbuilding the missions. He went on to 
say that he knew that supplies were necessary in 
order to preach the gospel, and that he would sug- 
gest a sure way of getting them. Margil had only 
to write to his friends in New Mexico, Parral, and 
Nuevo Leon that they could find among the Natchi- 
toches or Nassonites all sorts of European merchan- 
dise at reasonable prices, on which they could make 
sure profit. La Harpe would fix prices with them 
and give Margil five per cent, of sales. He urged 
this as an effective means of opening trade, of serv- 
ing many persons who needed the goods, and of 
establishing the missions securely ; and he averred 
that the offer came from a heart devoted to his rev- 
erence, in which benevolence had a larger place 
than any other motive. Finally he begged for ten 
cows and two bulls, praying that Margil would send 
to him for a supply of maize and beans in return, 
and remarked that he had sent by the bearer a 
present for the padre, consisting of ten pieces of 
Brittany linen and one piece of damask. 

^ In the French documents the name is written " Marsillo," but 
it evidently should be Margil. 



RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 49 

By the same bearer La Harpe sent a brief, 
though courteous, communication to Governor 
Alarcon, transmitting a diplomatic note from Bien- 
ville, but not mentioning trade. Soon afterwards 
the bearer returned with answers to both letters. 
The governor's reply was short and direct. While 
acknowledging the orders of his king and his own 
desire to keep on good terms with the French, he 
expressed surprise at their having settled among 
the Nassonites on territory belonging to Spain, and 
suggested that he might have to force them to 
withdraw. 

But Margil wrote in a very different tone. He 
said that he had heard of the arrival of La Harpe 
among the Nassonites and wished to know him, 
and that he should prize his friendship and seek to 
merit it. He accepted with joy the proposal of har- 
mony. He said he would write to his friends as 
La Harpe had suggested ; but, as it was not fitting 
for a religious to engage in trade, their correspond- 
ence would best be secret, not only for fear of 
possible consequences, but because they were not 
friends with Alarcon, and he might foil their pur- 
poses. He did not think, however, that Alarcon 
would stay long in the province. There were 
many complaints against him ; for example, he had 
not executed the viceroy's orders, nor had he dealt 
properly with the Indians. Margil promised to 
keep La Harpe well posted, and said that when 
the streams fell he would send him four cows and 
a bull, which were all he could spare just then. 



50 TEXAS 

After this specimen of the intrigues that were 
being hatched in the frontier nest, in evident con- 
tinuance of the policy of Saint-Denis, there needs 
no further illustration of the work in which he was 
engaged. 

The expedition led by Ramon made its final 
start from the Rio Grande just beyond the presidio 
of that name, April 27, 1716, following the route 
previously traveled by Saint-Denis, which became, 
under the name of the Old San Antonio or Pre- 
sidio Road, the first great Texas highway. After a 
march of about two months the Spanish reached 
the country of the Tejas, who received them with 
great friendliness. Mission San Francisco was re- 
established, but on a site about four leagues far- 
ther inland than where it first stood. Instead, 
however, of the original designation " de los Te- 
jas," it was rechristened " de los Neches." ^ Be- 
sides this, five other missions were founded, whose 
names were as follows : Nuestra Senora de la 
Guadalupe, La, Purisima Concepcion, San Joseph, 
San Miguel de Linares, and Nuestra Seiiora de los 
Dolores. They were to serve respectively, in the 
order in which they have been named, beo'inning 
with San Francisco, the Neches, or the Nacogdoches, 
the Asinais, the Noaches, the Adaes, and the Aes. 
Guadalupe was in the neighborhood of the present 
town of Nacogdoches, and the others were situated 
in an irregular group around it at distances ranging 

1 It served several Indian tribes, and the designation varies 
to some extent. 



RENEWED FRENCH ENCROACHMENTS 51 

from twenty-five to fifty miles, the last two being 
well towards the east and near the French settle- 
ments already established on Red River. 

This mission founding was not completed until 
in the year 1717. In the mean time Ramon had 
paid a friendly visit to the French post among the 
Natchitoches, and Saint-Denis had gone to Mobile. 
As to the subsequent operations of the latter, the 
accounts differ greatly, and it is a curious commen- 
tary on the inner history of this episode that the 
Spanish documents make a much more favorable 
showing for him than the French. It seems, in 
fact, that his conduct was better understood in 
Louisiana than in Mexico, except perhaps by the 
Ramon family and some of the padres. Aside from 
the conflict in the sources, it is evident that, while 
he gave out that he was going to Mobile to settle 
up his affairs and move to Mexico to serve the Span- 
ish, his real purpose was to organize the illicit trade 
at which he had been aiming from the start. The 
risks of his enterprise were plain, and he could get 
none of Crozat's goods until a colonial company was 
formed to help it on. Then he went back with the 
merchandise, representing it as his own. The effect 
was to rouse suspicion against him in Mexico. The 
goods were seized, and he was imprisoned. After 
a short time he was released by a royal order, but 
it provided that he and his wife should be sent to 
Guatemala. Soon afterwards he escaped to Louisi- 
ana and reentered the French service, and in the 
course of time his wife rejoined him. 



52 TEXAS 

His work had been effective in everything hut 
the results he wished. Like a good vassal in old 
feudal days, he served his immediate lords, Cadillac 
and Crozat, better than he served his king ; and it 
is probable that if the government of either France 
or Spain had really understood what he was about, 
he would have been rewarded with a halter. 

But Spain owed him much ; for he had given it 
possession of a goodly land. Thenceforth, until 
the Anglo-Americans came, Texas followed the for- 
tunes of Mexico. 



CHAPTER VI 

SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 

The Spanish have inherited the imperial, and 
perhaps also a sufficient degree of the colonizing, 
instinct ; but the empire they built has been lost to 
them by reason of their ineffective work in coloni- 
zation. This is at least the proximate cause. It 
may be doubted, indeed, whether the native strength 
of the Peninsula was ever adequate for a struggle 
over world-wide dominance ; but if it were, the 
national experience of the Spaniard never gave it 
proper direction till it had suffered a virtual paraly- 
sis. The Spanish explorers were daring, energetic, 
and persistent enough for any undertaking. No 
adventurers went farther or risked and suffered 
more. In the annals of the discovery and conquest 
of America, the wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, 
Coronado, and De Soto stand forth preeminent, as 
much for hardihood as fruitlessness. But the con- 
quistador was not backed up by the settler, and the 
officials could not organize a compact political and 
social system from native material alone. So it 
was that, while the explorations and claims of the 
Spanish were wide enough for a schoolboy's dream, 
their grasp was too weak for permanence. 



54 TEXAS 

The ultimate explanation of this lies at least 
partly in the religious history of Spain. The Eng- 
lish colonies were peopled to a large extent by those 
who, much as they loved England, preferred the 
hardshijas of America to conformity at home. The 
domestic quarrels, therefore, of the English served 
at least to secure their possessions abroad. But 
religious uniformity in Spain, purchased at the cost 
of the expulsion of the Moors and Jews and the ex- 
tirpation of heresy, left no such popular motive to 
emigration ; and, had it been otherwise, the Span- 
ish heretic would have been excluded from the set- 
tlements of his countrymen in America, just as the 
Huguenot was from those of France. Considering 
these facts together with that already noted, — that 
all the failing strength of Spain was required to 
maintain its rights and claims in Europe, — it is 
not strange that the policy of that government 
seemed so weak in meeting the crises in the history 
of its colonies. 

The Spanish settlements in Texas were of three 
types : the ecclesiastical, the military, and the civil, 
named respectively the mission, the presidio, and 
the pueblo or pohlacion. Before going any farther, 
these must be briefl}'^ described. 

The mission was the instrument for accomplish- 
ing one of the main objects professed — and no 
doubt sincerely — by the Spanish in their coloniz- 
ing work in America, i. e. the Christianizing of the 
Indians. Its principal element was a group of 
priests, usually quite small and sometimes includ- 



SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 55 

ing one or more lay brethren, whose duty It was to 
instruct the natives at the same time in the elements 
of Christianity and o£ civilization, or, as Eden's 
translation of the bull of Pope Alexander VI. divid- 
ing the New World puts it, " in the Catholyke 
fayth and good maners." The instruction in the 
one case was largely in the forms of the Catholic 
religion, and in the other mainly in agriculture and 
the commonest industries and arts. In order to 
accomplish these purposes it was necessary to in- 
duce the Indians to abandon their roving life and 
settle in reach of the padres. A natural adjunct of 
the mission, therefore, was the pueblo, or village 
of the natives. Those who could be induced to ac- 
cept the mission-village life were known as Indios 
reducidos, in distinction from the hostile rovers, 
who were called Indios bravos. The most effective 
means of " reducing " the Indians lay in the gifts 
that were distributed among them from time to 
time; but, as might be supposed, the "reduction" 
was in most cases only temporary. The census re- 
ports made periodically from the various missions 
show clearly how shifting was the population held 
together by such means. By Spanish law the In- 
dians could be detained in the pueblos by force, 
and the policy of the missionaries was to prevent 
their escape if possible, and, when they ran away in 
spite of priestly vigilance, to recapture them ; but 
the authorities would not always furnish the neces- 
sary soldiers. 

The best idea of the mission and its actual daily 



56 TEXAS 

round of life may be had from the detailed contem- 
porai-y accounts that have been left us. The fol- 
lowing description of the village connected with La 
Concepcion at San Antonio and of the common life 
at the missions is translated from a report of the 
missionaries on the state of the missions in 1762 : 

The pueblo is composed of two rows of stone houses 
and huts in which the Indians Uve, which are furnished 
with boilers, flat earthen pans, pots, and other domestic 
utensils, the pueblo being also surrounded by a wall for 
its protection and defense. It has its inclosed fields, the 
necessary supplies of water, a flowing irrigation ditch with 
its stone dam, and a ranch with its dwellings for the fami- 
lies who look after its two hundred mares, one hundred 
and ten hogs, six hundred and ten head of cattle, and 
twenty-two hundred head of goats and sheep. There are 
stored in its granary, which is a single large room, about 
eigiit hundred fanegas ^ of corn and fifty of beans for 
the sui3ply of the pueblo. 

The same report describes the management of 
the Indians at the missions as follows : — 

The catechism of the Gentile and Christian Indians-is 
uniform in all the missions, and the same which the 
reverend father founders, highly venerable for their vir- 
tues and character, used. . . . 

Every day all the Indians recite in concert the text 
of the Christian doctrine according to the catechism of 
Ripalda, in the morning before work and in the evening 
after it. Three or four times a week the ministers in- 
struct their Indians, with reference to the same text of 

^ Afanega is about one hundred pounds. 



SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 57 

the catechism, in the mysteries of our holy faith and the 
obligations of Christians, with similes and arguments 
adapted to their inexpressible rusticity. 

The Gentiles are taught separately by means of their 
interpreters, which requires extra expenditure of time, 
until they are grounded in the elements ; and when they 
have shown some disposition to remain at the missions 
(which not even the oldest Christians have in full measure) 
holy baptism is administered to them. Besides the reci- 
tation in concert, the boys are also instructed separately 
every day by their fiscal, and often by their ministers, in 
order to see their progress. 

To the dying and the sick is promptly administered 
holy baptism, if they are infidels, and to the Christians 
are administered the holy sacraments of penance, the 
eucharist, and extreme unction . . . 

For those who come from the woods married, the nat- 
ural contract is ratified (leaving only one wife to those 
who bring several) before their baptism, and the Chris- 
tians are married at the proper time by the church offi- 
cials and in conformity with the regulations of the holy 
Council of Trent. 

All those who are of sufficient age confess and receive 
the sacrament, according to their respective ability to 
understand, during Lent and on any festivals when they 
wish. . . . 

The missionaries have paid special attention to the 
temporal assistance of the Indians, both because this is 
their personal business, and because it is one of the most 
important means of subsistence for those who live at the 
missions, and for the attraction of those who inhabit the 
woods, who observe and consider the advantages the 
others enjoy. 



58 TEXAS 

For this purpose are used the cattle which the mis- 
sionaries manage to acquire in order to kill, at each 
mission every Sunday and on some special feast days, 
four or five head, according to the number of people — 
dividing them into pieces in order that each individual 
may have his corresponding ration ; and mutton is given 
to those who are sick. 

The corn crop is consumed by giving the Indians what 
they need for all purposes ; and they are also furnished 
beans, pumpkins, watermelons, melons, pepper, salt, and 
sugar, which is made from cane that they take care to 
plant at each mission annually, because this is the best 
thing to regale the Indians and the most pleasing to their 
appetite. In the missions cotton and wool are used by 
making them into manias,^ terlingas^ rebozos^ coarse 
cloths, and blankets for their protection and covering. 

The surplus of all these products, if they are pro- 
duced in abundance and there are persons to buy them, 
is sold for secured bills, which are sent to our reverend 
fatTier guardian, whence they pass to our brother syndic, 
in order that they may be laid out in cloths, flannels, 
hats, knives, boilers, pots, flat earthen pans, metates,^ 
tobacco, glass beads, rechas,^ hatchets, crowbars, pick- 
axes, bridles, thread, needles, saddles, and whatever is 
necessary, and for the goods to satisfy the Spanish stew- 
ards and serving men for the care of the mission, crops, 
and cattle. 

1 Shawls or light hed coverings of cotton or wool. 

^ What this Avord means, I am unable to say. It is probably a 
copyist's corruption. I have not been able to find the original 
report. — G. P. G. 

^ Light scarfs used to throw over the head. 

* Flat stones on which boiled maize is crushed into a pulp. 

^ Probably meant for rejas, ploughshares. 



SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 59 

For tlie same purpose, in large part, is used also, by 
direction of our sacred college, the annual offering which 
the king our lord contributes for the missionaries, our 
prelates assisting us with chocolate, powder, cloth, under- 
clothes, drugs, and what is, from the standpoint of the 
religious, considered indispensable. 

All the aforesaid, with the bills that are taken in (which 
bills, however, are not always obtained), is spent for 
ornaments, vases, sacred images, and other necessaries 
for divine worship, adornment of the churches, and sat- 
isfaction of the workmen. It is used also in dressing, 
adorning, and maintaining men, women, and children, 
not only by annual appropriations, but on all occasions 
when they tear, lose, or waste the clothing. 

The horses are used in looking after the cattle, gather- 
ing the flocks, and in other services of the missions to 
which they belong ; most of them being lost or stolen, 
either by enemies or by the Indians of the missions them- 
selves when they escape. 

The Indians are assisted, when they are sick, with 
medicines which this country furnishes, and some which 
are brought in for the purpose. They are visited by the 
fathers and by other persons who have been charged 
with the care of them ; and in serious cases they are fed 
from the kitchen of the fathers, and in all they are re- 
lieved from work. For this reason not a few of them 
get to making pretenses, and the missionaries, in order to 
keep them from running away, behave as if they were 
deceived by them. 

The labor of the Indians is to plant the fields, look 
after the cattle, to water the crops, to clear away weeds, 
and to gather their grain, to erect their dwellings, and 
other buildings of the missions to which the community 



60 TEXAS 

attends ; but with such slowness and carelessness that it 
is always necessary for some Spaniard to be directing 
them, and four of them are not sufficient for what could 
be done by one. They work, with a lack of energy cor- 
responding to their inborn laziness, some at weaving and 
in the forges, and others as carpenters and bi-icklayers, 
in which ti'ades instruction has been furnished them by 
the missionaries with no small endeavor for their com- 
fort. They have been provided also with the proper 
tools for all these occupations. 

The employment of the women and children is to spin 
with malacates,^ and to comb cotton. All this labor 
constitutes no impediment to their spiritual welfare or 
the help due their families, but is very moderate and con- 
formable to their want of culture, little talent, and great 
sloth. 

Naturally enough recruits for the mission work 
were obtained among the friars rather than the 
secular clergy, and that in Texas was done by Fran- 
ciscans, who came either from Queretaro or from 
Zacatecas. The colleges of the order at these two 
places were, therefore, the bases from which the 
efforts of the missionaries were organized and di- 
rected. The Queretarans and Zacatecans worked 
separately, but, while exhibiting perhaps a touch 
of jealousy now and then, usually in all harmony. 

The presidio was the fort, or instrument of mili- 
tary occupation. It was used where defense or 
protection with arms was a necessity. There was 
generally at least one for each group of exposed 

^ Rough spindles. 



SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 61 

missions, so located as to be most effective in shel- 
terins: them all. It was not uncommon for a little 
guard of soldiers to be stationed at a mission, if 
there were no presidio immediately at hand, but 
the padres usually preferred to be without them ; 
for the soldiers sent to do duty as presidiales, or 
mission guards, were of the lowest type of hu- 
manity that could be picked up, and their outrages 
on the Indians often interfered seriously with the 
work the missionaries had been sent to do. 

The noblest and most enduring visible monu- 
ments of the Spanish occupation are the mission 
and presidio buildings. Those erected in east 
Texas were the oldest ; but owing to the abundance 
of wood and lack of stone in that country most of 
them were built of perishable materials, and they 
have long since disappeared so completely that no 
one knows even where they stood. There was till 
recently one notable exception in the old Stone 
Fort at Nacogdoches, erected for the defense of the 
pueblo of Bucareli, which was moved thither from 
the banks of the Trinity about 1778 ; but that has 
recently been torn down to make room for a busi- 
ness house.^ In the west, however, timber was less 
abundant and stone plentiful, and the mission 
buildings in that quarter were massive and endur- 

^ This fort played an important part in the Fredonian war and 
the disturbances of 1832. It was the last monument of the origi- 
nal Texas, and there is now left perhaps no visible mark by which 
the old district conld be located. The stones have been saved, 
and it is hoped that the building will be restored some day on a 
spot suitable for the purpose. 



62 TEXAS 

ing. There is an especially interesting group in 
the ruins of the five missions that were located in 
and near the city of San Antonio. What means 
and appurtenances the devotion of the Spanish 
missionaries and secular authorities led them to 
provide for the worship of God, even in the wilder- 
ness, may be seen from a description of the church 
of Concepcion in the report of 1762, already men- 
tioned. The writer dwells with evident pride on 
the attractive architecture of the building, the 
mural decorations, the finely sculptured images of 
stone, the elegant service for the mass, the supply 
of ornaments, the rich vestments for the priests, 
and the convenient and comfortable construction 
and furnishing of their vivienda or dwelling. 

The third instrument used by the Spanish in 
their colonizing work in Texas was the civil settle- 
ment. This form was so connected, and often so 
blended, with the other two, that it is rather diffi- 
cult to define in general. The Spanish word for 
any aggregation of settlers is pueblo ov pohlacion. 
If the settlement acquired special rights of self- 
government it might still be known by either of 
these designations, but more specifically it then 
became a villa or a ciudad (city).^ Its local gov- 
ernment was administered by a council known as 
the cabildo or ayuntamiento, composed of alcaldes 
(judges), regidores (town councilors), and cer- 

1 Under the Mexican government the villas of Texas were the 
administrative centres or capitals of districts which were known 
as raimicipalities. At the time of the Revolntion of 1830 these 
municipalities became the counties of the Republic. 



SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 63 

tain other officials. The members were nominally 
elected, but the election meant little. The council 
had really none of the independence and legislative 
power that is possessed by municipal authorities in 
the United States. In its more elementary and 
theoretical aspects the system of government for 
the Spanish colonies in America was quite simple. 
They were governed, even to the minutest details 
of lawmaking, by the king through a body of his 
appointees known as the Council of the Indies. 
There were subordinate courts, but no legislative 
bodies. Practically, however, there was great con- 
fusion. The viceroys had all the power of the king 
except as they were expressly limited. The laws 
did not harmonize, and the special rights of the 
privileged classes and the multitude of conflicting 
jurisdictions made all pretense at justice a mockery. 
The disorder reached its height towards the early 
days of the nineteenth century. The northern pro- 
vinces were then under a general commandant with 
headquarters at Chihuahua. Original judgments 
which were given at that time by the provincial 
governors were subject to review, if on military 
subjects, by the commandant at Chihuahua ; if on 
fiscal, by the intendant at San Luis Potosi ; if on 
ecclesiastical, by the bishop at Nuevo Leon ; and 
if on civil, by the audiencia of Nueva Galicia. 

Under such a system local self-government was 
only a pretense. Of organized and self-conscious 
municipal life expressing itself through popular 
elections or mass meetings or any of the recognized 



64 TEXAS 

instruments of local public opinion in countries 
which have inherited English institutions, there was 
nothing. Neither was there any scope for independ- 
ent action on the part of the councils. All they 
could do was to move in prescribed lines. Every- 
thing depended ultimately on the decision of au- 
thorities who were far away and tardy with their 
answers. Any attempt to enforce rights by law was 
like a shot at the moon ; it might be started in the 
proper direction, but there was little prospect of 
reaching the mark. The main hope of the settlers 
was in the forgetfulness or neglect of the distant 
lawmakers and judges, too ignorant of actual con- 
ditions in Texas to rule it wisely, which left them to 
fight out their own petty quarrels among themselves. 
Accordingly the minutes of the cabildos or ayunta- 
mientos are a record of petitions and trivial dis- 
cussions, which derive their interest from the light 
they throw on current questions of real impor- 
tance. They are concerned with grievances of one 
member of the council against another, with com- 
plaints against the neighboring missionaries and 
presidiales, and with other affairs of like weight 
and import. In 1735 the council of the villa of San 
Fernando at San Antonio petitioned for a leave of 
absence for an official who wished to go to Saltillo 
for medical treatment, contrary to restrictions pre- 
viously laid on the Canary Island settlers of the 
villa. The petition was sent to the governor and 
forwarded with his recommendation in the premises 
to the viceroy, and the next year the answer came. 



SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN TEXAS 65 

The man might go, — presumably he was still alive, 
— but he must be watched and if he tried to run 
away arrested for a traitor. This is a sufficient 
illustration of the nature of municipal government 
in Spanish Texas. 

One hopeful aspect of the municipal activity 
of that period consists in the efforts made at San 
Fernando to establish and foster a school system. 
These began May 1, 1789, — a date significant 
enough, — and continued in a weak and fluttering 
way, but evidently gathering strength, up to the 
eve of the Revolution in 1835. Inadequate as they 
were, they show that the Spanish inhabitants of 
Texas were not wholly without noble aspirations ; 
and when recounted in connection with the famous 
indictment in the Texas declaration of independence 
against the Mexican government for its neglect of 
popular education, they acquire no small degree of 
interest. 

But however little of political virility and pro- 
mise there may have been in the Spanish civil col- 
ony, it was the real germ of the typical Peninsular 
civilization, and the one which could best be relied 
on for successful transplanting to New Spain. 
Whether the Spanish appreciated its importance or 
not, one secret of their failure lies in the expendi- 
ture of energy on the two other colonial types to 
the neglect of this. While upwards of twenty-five 
missions and presidios were founded first and last 
on Texas soil, there were, when the Anglo-Ameri- 
cans began to pour in, but three centres of Spanish 



66 TEXAS 

population between the Sabine and the Rio Grande : 
San Antonio,^ Goliad,^ and Nacogdoches. In the 
rapidity with which settlements began to multiply 
and spread from that time on, there is a most in- 
structive contrast. 

1 Or B4jar. 2 Or La Bahia. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN ANTONIO 

As I have said, there were but three permanent 
Spanish settlements established in Texas. This, of 
course, does not include the old town of Ysleta, 
which has always been Indian and not Spanish. 
Nor was it a part of the Texas with which we are 
now dealing. Although the determination of 
boundaries has left it finally within the State, and 
the building of the Texas Pacific and Southern 
Pacific railways and the growth of El Paso near 
by have helped on its real geographical incorpora- 
tion with the developing commonwealth, it was 
completely isolated from the province by the 
intervening desert and the fierce Apaches and 
Comanches. 

Of the three which are properly included, and 
which have already been named, San Antonio was 
the most important. It was the capital of Texas 
during nearly the whole period of Spanish and 
Mexican rule.^ Its situation as outpost in relation 
to the Anglo-American colonies caused it to become 
the scene of the most desperate fighting in the cam- 
paigns of 1835 and 1836 including the defense of 

^ Adaes on the eastern border of the province enjoyed the dis- 
tinction for a brief season. 



68 TEXAS 

the Alamo, the superlatively dramatic episode of all 
the history of America. It remains the most inter- 
esting city in Texas, if not, indeed, in the whole 
Southwest. In and around it are to be seen the 
ruins of five notable missions, and in spite of its 
modern and progressive aspects there is much to 
remind one of what it has been. Not on account of 
these facts, however, is a sketch of its beginnings 
demanded here, but because its settlement was one 
of the most important features of the making of 
Texas. 

It will be well to brush away at the outset the 
tissue of legends concerning the origin of San An- 
tonio, which date it back into the last decade of the 
seventeenth century. They are without the support 
of any trustworthy evidence. The settlement was 
begun in 1718, but the accounts of the Saint-Denis 
expedition contain some interesting references to 
what was doubtless the site of it. One of these is 
to the effect that when Saint-Denis and his com- 
panions were on their way from the country of the 
Asinais to the Presidio del Rio Grande, they crossed 
the San Antonio River at an Indian village, and 
he remarked the fitness of the place for a presidio. 
Another, speaking in less uncertain terms, says 
that, when the party led to the Tejas country by 
Captain Domingo Ramon in 1716 was marching 
inward, it encamped on one occasion at some springs 
to which was given the name San Pedro, and Cap- 
tain Ramon observed that it was a good place to 
build a city. The presidio was there within two 



THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN ANTONIO 69 

years, but the city did not come for about a dozen 
more. 

The early history of San Antonio is a study hav- 
ing special interest and attraction on account of the 
peculiar nature of the settlement. Almost from its 
founding it was a combination of presidio, mission, 
and villa, the mission having the usual jaueblo. Or 
perhaps it would better be called an aggregation of 
the three ; for they were not really combined, but 
there were, of course, necessarily close relations 
among them. That they did not always get on well 
together is evident enough from the facts stated in 
the previous chapter.^ The settlements at Nacog- 
doches and Goliad also contained at different times 
all these three elements, but they do not present so 
perfect a case of the parallel development of the 
three in juxtaposition. 

At San Antonio the presidio and the mission 
came together. After the establishment of the 
eastern group of missions in 1716-17, as the out- 
come of the Saint-Denis expedition. Commandant 
Ramon and the padres kept calling for more set- 
tlers, until finally the call was answered by Martin 
de Alarcon, who had been appointed governor of 
Coahuila, and later of Texas also, that he might 
look after its colonization. He had been directed 
to take fifty soldiers, a number of carpenters, black- 
smiths, and masons, and some cattle and supplies 
and push on the work of settlement in Texas. The 
artisans were to have annual salaries. The purpose 
^ See p. 64. 



70 TEXAS 

in bringing them, as expressed in the documents 
relative to the period, was to instruct the Indians 
and insure the settlement of the country. Alarcon 
entered the province and set himself to his task 
early in 1718. He founded the presidio of San 
Antonio de Bejar on the San Antonio River, prob- 
ably near the Indian village whose favorable situa- 
tion had been noted by Saint-Denis. At the same 
time he established under the shelter of the pre- 
sidio the mission of San Antonio de Valero in 
charge of Padre Olivares. This foundation is 
scarcely to be regarded as a new mission, but rather 
as a transfer of the one named San Francisco Solano 
on the Rio Grande, which Olivares had assisted in 
founding in the year 1700, and at which he had 
subsequently worked. The Rio Grande mission was 
now abandoned, and the Indians were moved — at 
least so far as it could be effected — to the new 
establishment on the San Antonio. 

The mission of San Antonio de Valero was soon 
reenforced by several others. In 1720 the mission 
of San Jose de Aguayo was founded near by, and in 
1722 that of San Xavier de Mxera. In 1729 the 
presidio of Texas, the defense of the three missions 
controlled by the Franciscans of Quer^taro in the 
eastei'n group,^ was abandoned, and in 1731 these 
missions were transferred to the less exposed loca- 
tion at San Antonio. Their names before the re- 
moval were San Francisco de los Neches, La Purf- 
sima Concepcion de los Asinais, and San Joseph de 
^ See p. 86. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN ANTONIO 71 

los Nazones ; but the facts that there was already 
one San Jos6 at B^jar and that their distinctive 
appellations, which were those of the Indian tribes 
they had served, were no longer applicable, caused 
the change of the three names respectively to San 
Francisco de la Espada, La Purisima Concepcion de 
Acuiia, and San Juan Capistrano. In this connec- 
tion it should be remembered that San Francisco 
de los Neches was the reestablished San Francisco 
de los Tejas, and that its history, therefore, dates 
back to the very beginnings of Texas. 

What is now known as the Alamo stands front- 
ing on the Alamo Plaza in one of the busiest parts 
of the modern city. It is said to have been begun 
in 1744. It appears to have been the chapel of 
Mission San Antonio de Valero. The ruins as 
they now exist cover only a small part of the 
grounds of the original mission. That the name 
Alamo, which was applied to the whole group of 
buildings, superseded the regular ecclesiastical de- 
signation was doubtless due to their occupation by 
a company of Mexican troops known as that of the 
Alamo of Parras.^ 

To the military and ecclesiastical establishments 
already fixed between the San Antonio and the San 
Pedro was added in 1731 a civil settlement known 
as the villa of San Fernando. This measure had 
been recommended by the Marques de Aguayo. 

^ The word alamo is Spanish for Cottonwood, and a popular but 
mistaken explanation of the name of the building attributes it to 
the number of Cottonwood trees that once stood near by. 



72 TEXAS 

The necessary colonists were obtained mainly from 
the Canary Islands. A royal decree of 1722 had 
provided that four hundred families from the Ca- 
naries should be brought to Texas as settlers, but 
none had come ; so another decree issued early in 
1729 directed that every vessel leaving the islands 
for Havana should bring ten or twelve families to 
be sent to Texas. The next year fifteen or six- 
teen families, comprising fifty odd persons in all, 
were actually brought over. Instead, however, of 
having them transported from Havana to Texas by 
the comparatively direct and easy route via Espir- 
itu Santo, they were sent in by way of Vera Cruz, 
and had to make the wearisome march overland 
from Guantitlan, near the city of Mexico, to their 
prospective location. A contemporary critic com- 
plains that the bringing in of the few families in- 
volved great trouble and expense. 

The government paid the whole cost of the trip 
and provided for the maintenance of each settler 
for one year after reaching the appointed spot. 
The decrees of the viceroy provided for the wel- 
fare of the newcomers as a father would look after 
his children, going into endless detail. The gov- 
ernor was directed to furnish them with stock and 
to teach them to look after the same, and the most 
minute instructions were given as to the plan of 
the villa, the size of the lots, the position of the 
houses, etc. It is likely that the settlers them- 
selves knew but little of what was ordered by the 
decrees. At any rate, they failed to take advan- 



THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN ANTONIO 73 

tage of some of them. It was provided that they 
and their descendants should all be hidalgos, but 
they do not seem to have made much of the honor ; 
and, further, their settlement was to have the proud 
title of " ciudad," or city, but of this also they 
were deprived. It became in the records the 
" villa " of San Fernando. 

The Canary Islanders were not the only settlers 
of the villa. There were a number of people liv- 
ing around the presidio when they came, and these, 
together with some families of Tlascalan Indians, 
helj)ed to swell the population of the new town. 
Unfortunately they also helped to make a thor- 
oughly incompatible social mixture, and the dis- 
cord of their complaint rang to heaven. The real 
" first settlers," who were there already without 
cost to the king and by virtue of their own efforts 
and expense, could not harmonize with the upstart 
hidalgos from the Canaries. 

To cap the climax of dissension and disorgan- 
ization there was a constant triangular quarrel of 
villa, presidio, and mission. The nature of their 
differences has already been touched upon.^ How 
their trifling and childish misconduct annoyed the 
intelligent inspectors sent out by the viceroy from 
time to time is sufficiently evident from the scoring 
they got in the reports. 

In the course of time the original friction seems 
to have disappeared to a large extent. The old 
and new settlers learned to live more peaceably 

^ See p. 64. 



74 TEXAS 

together, and in 1793 one member of the discord- 
ant trinity disappeared. The Franciscans at San 
Antonio de Valero had been gradually ceasing 
their mission work for lack of material, and in the 
year mentioned they surrendered the pueblo of 
which they had been in charge to the parish of 
San Fernando. The four neighboring missions 
survived several years longer, either through their 
temporary escape from the general secularizing 
decree of 1794, or through their continuance in 
the condition of parishes ; but they had, in fact, 
always stood practically apart from the corporate 
life of the settlement, on which their fortunes had 
little effect. The modern city includes the ground 
on which all three of the original elements stood, 
and it promises to expand ere long over the ruins 
of the nearest of the neighboring missions ; but 
there seems little reason to fear that the spirit of 
commercialism will ever dare to demand for its 
ewn uses the room they occupy. 

The name the settlement was to bear remained 
long in doubt. That of San Fernando was applied 
only to the villa as distinguished from the presidio 
and the mission ; but as the dwellers in and around 
them gradually merged into one community, the 
names Bexar ^ and San Antonio struggled with 
each other, and the latter finally prevailed. 

1 Or B^jar, 



CHAPTER VIII 

FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 

From 1716, when the eastern group of mis- 
sions was reestablished by Ramon, till 1762, when 
France surrendered western Louisiana to Spain, 
the Spanish and French stood facing each other at 
the northeast corner of Texas in close proximity. 
There had been no adjustment of their conflicting 
claims, and the frontiers on both sides had been 
pushed forward by actual occupation till they were 
about to meet. From the mission of Adaes to 
the French fort previously established among the 
Natchitoches Indians on Red River was only seven 
leagues. The situation was a constant menace, 
which soon came to fulfillment in open hostilities. 

After the death of Louis XIV., in 1715, the 
cordial relations which had existed between France 
and Spain were interrupted by the regency of the 
duke of Orleans. This lasted until 1723, when 
the young Louis XV. assumed the government 
himself, and the hostility then developed continued 
for some years thereafter. Orleans, to forestall 
any effort that might be made by the Boui-bon 
Philip V. of Spain to assert his hereditary claims 
to the French throne in case of the death of Louis, 



76 TEXAS 

departed from the traditional policy of his nation 
and formed an alliance against Philip with England, 
Holland, and the Emperor. In 1719 a French 
army invaded Spain, and the outbreak of the war 
was the signal for like movements in the colonies. 
In May of that year the French attacked Pensa- 
cola, and in June the Spanish soldiers and mission- 
aries of Adaes and San Francisco fled to Be jar, 
leaving their establishments to be plundered and 
destroyed by the Indians. 

The Spanish documents indicate that the flight 
was due to an attack made on Adaes by a large 
confederacy of Indians organized and led by Saint- 
Denis, but this cannot be true. Indeed, there was 
probably no attack at all. The ruling authorities 
in Louisiana did not wish the missionaries to be 
driven away, and regarded their departure as a 
most untoward occurrence. Bienville made ag- 
gressive utterances now and then, but the Com- 
pany of the Indies that had succeeded Crozat in 
the proprietorship of the French colony pursued 
the policy already adojited of keeping the peace 
and nursing the intercolonial trade. The policy 
of the company was Saint-Denis's also, and he 
could have had no part in any attack on the mis- 
sions. If they were attacked at all, it was by 
Commandant Blondel of the post at Natchitoches. 
He was upbraided by La Harpe for having driven 
away the missionaries in opposition to the purposes 
of the company, and was reminded that it was im- 
portant to have the Spanish settled near the French 



FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 77 

posts for the sake of trade and of the cattle they 
furnished ; that, moreover, the missionaries could 
give no offense, and that they had served as cures 
at the French fort. And Blondel replied that he 
had gone to Adaes only to save the mission from 
the Indians, who would not have failed to take 
advantage of the outbreak of the Franco-Spanish 
war to destroy it ; but the padres, not knowing his 
intentions, had fled precipitately. Blondel did not 
add the fact that Bienville had ordered him to at- 
tack Adaes, which might not have excused him to the 
company. La Harpe then dictated to him a letter 
to the friars, containing a most humble apology. It 
explained why he had gone to Adaes, and stated that 
he had taken possession of their sacred vessels to 
save them from profanation, but that he would re- 
store them when requested. Finally he begged the 
missionaries to return, promising them all possible 
help. Whether this letter ever reached its destina- 
tion does not appear, but it found its way into print. 
The occasion brought into prominence a man of 
the kind that, if they had been sufficiently numer- 
ous, might have saved for Spain its hold upon 
America. This was the Marques de San Miguel 
de Aguayo. He offered his person and property 
for the war against the French and was appointed 
governor of Nueva Estremadura and Nuevas Filipi- 
nas, or Coahuila and Texas. He then raised and 
equipped a force of five hundred dragoons ^ and two 

^ In the old sense of soldiers armed and trained to fight either 
on horseback or on foot. 



78 TEXAS 

companies of cavalry, and in May, 1721, he set out 
to recover the ground from which the Spanish had 
fled. How willing- the French were to have them 
come back, he could scarcely have known. 

Before this Spain had been forced to bow to 
the will of her enemies, and in 1720 the war with 
France had closed. Aguayo went, therefore, with 
instructions to confine himself to the recovery of 
the province of Texas and putting it in a defensible 
state, and not to make war on the French. 

The task was easily accomplished. Saint-Denis 
met Aguayo on the Neches and welcomed him. 
The Indians gladly received the Spanish, for the 
business of gift-giving was likely to be more active 
if the French met with continued competition ; and 
the old missions were soon reestablished. The dis- 
tinctive feature of Aguayo's work was the strength- 
ening of the military defenses of the province. In 
addition to restoring the presidio of Texas, he added 
another that stood near Adaes over ajjainst the 
French fort at Natchitoches and at the most ex- 
posed point of the eastern group. This new fort 
he called Pilar, and into it he put one hundred men. 
On his return to the west early in 1722, he changed 
the location of the Bejar presidio to a more satis- 
factory spot, and thereafter he established another 
at La Bahia,^ on the site of Fort St. Louis, so as to 
command the only way for ships into Texas then 
known and used. There he left ninety men. 

The French reply was only a little ineffectual 

^ Subsequently moved to the San Antonio River. 



FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 79 

grumbling and an equally ineffectual attempt to 
gain a foothold on the Texas coast at Espivitu 
Santo Bay. Bienville protested against the forti- 
fication of Adaes, or Pilar, in a letter already men- 
tioned,^ and argued, with a certain want of either 
logic or geographical knowledge, that the flight of 
the superior from Adaes in 1719, before the coming 
of Blondel, was an acknowledgment that Red River 
belonged to the French. Going on, Bienville de- 
clared his intention to oppose, in the interests of 
his king, this military establishment until he had 
express orders to allow it. In a report to the 
French minister of the marine, made a few days 
later, he explained the state of things on the Texas 
border and said, in such a way as to suggest that 
he needed inside information as to colonial policy 
in Louisiana, tha,t the intention of the Company of 
the Indies was to oppose the return of the Spanish, 
either to the Adaes, whence he had driven them in 
1719, or to the Asinais, and that it had committed 
the enterprise to Saint-Denis, who had flattered 
himself that he could secure the help of the Indians. 
Accordingly, said Bienville, he had issued Saint- 
Denis orders, which that official did not see fit to fol- 
low, because he thought the interests of the colony 
demanded that the Spanish be left among the 
Asinais for the sake of their cattle and money ; and 
Saint-Denis had gone so far as to assure the Span- 
ish commandant that he had nothing to fear from 
the Indians. On the other hand, this same double- 
1 Page 47. 



80 TEXAS 

dealing Frenchman had told Bienville that he had 
the word of honor of the commandant not to estab- 
lish himself at Adaes. Bienville concluded by say- 
ing that he could do nothing more than to reenforce 
the garrison at Natchitoches, which had only fifty 
men ; but that he had issued orders to Saint-Denis 
to stir np the Indians and get them to refuse the 
Spanish anything in the way of provisions and to 
intercept the supplies that might come to them from 
the Asinais establishment. 

Verily the lot of Bienville was hard. With 
Beelzebub directing him at one elbow and Mam- 
mon at the other and the imps uncontrollable, he 
must often have wished himself either a larger or a 
smaller devil in this French Inferno. It is impos- 
sible not to sympathize with him. He played the 
hero in Louisiana for the sake of France and his 
king, only to see his own high aspirations crushed 
by a combination of self-willed and self-seeking 
utilitarians ; but history will pass its verdict both 
on him and them. 

The expedition to Espiritu Santo Bay was made 
by La Harpe in 1721. It was conducted without 
energy, and had no substantial results. The rea- 
son assigned for its failure was the unfriendliness 
of the Indians. 

The Spanish remained at Adaes, and the illicit 
trade throve and prospered ; and there was only 
one other time when the question of the Franco- 
Spanish border excited any special attention. In 
this case tlie trouble lasted for some years ; and 



FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 81 

though the French gave the original occasion, the 
course of it was confined almost entirely to the Span- 
ish. In its later aspects, it became a personal affair 
between two officials, which dragged itself out till 
it became tiresome even to the Spanish chroniclers. 
In 1734 Captain Manuel de Sandoval became 
governor of Texas ; and because of the fact that 
the Apaches iu the west were much more trouble- 
some, and apparently more dangerous, than the 
French on the border, he took up his residence at 
Bejar, this arrangement being approved by the 
viceroy. He seems to have been active and efficient 
in the discharge of his duties ; but in some way he 
incurred the hostility of the captain of the presidio 
and the settlers of the villa, and they agitated vari- 
ous charges against him. That which they found 
most effective for their purposes was that he had 
neglected his duty in allowing French aggressions in 
the east. This charge was based on a very insig- 
nificant fact. Up to the year 1735 the French fort 
at Natchitoches had been located on what in times 
of high water was an island ; but the adjacent 
houses, fields, etc., extended westward to Arroyo 
Hondo and a point called La Gran Montana, half 
way to Adaes. In the year named, on account of 
the overflows to which the locality of the fort was 
subject and for other reasons, it was moved a gun- 
shot or more westward to a house previously occu- 
pied by a Frenchman, where the erection of new 
fortifications was beq;un. There was nothin"- in this 
to arouse the Spanish ; and in view of the fact 



82 TEXAS 

that it was practically througli French permission 
that they were settled in that country at all, their 
subsequent conduct appears almost amusing. 

Ensign Joseph Gonzalez, the commandant at 
Adaes, immediately reported the facts to Sandoval, 
who opposed the removal, and a correspondence with 
Saint-Denis, then commandant at Natchitoches, be- 
gan, which lasted through nearly a year. The gist 
of it is sufficiently contained in the first letter from 
Gonzalez to Saint-Denis, the reply, and a letter from 
Saint-Denis to Sandoval. Gonzalez said that he had 
informed his superiors of the contemplated removal, 
and had been directed to pray the French to keep 
within the limits always conceded to France ; that 
he must demand that they stop the work they had 
begun, and that he did demand it, for the first time, 
in the name of his king. Saint-Denis did not wait 
for three times and out, but announced at once, 
with sententious brevity, " for the first, the second, 
and the third time," that he was obeying orders 
and would continue to obey them. To Sandoval he 
wrote, as if with less impatience, that the French 
were the first discoverers of Texas ; that the French 
settlements west of Red River were there at the 
time of Aguayo's entrada^ and that neither the 
marquis nor his successors objected to them ; that 
in 1718 Ramon was furnished with supplies from 
Natchitoches ; that the Spanish owed their subse- 
quent occupation of Adaes and the founding of their 
missions to Saint-Denis himself ; that the French 
represented the Natchitoches, who possessed lands 



FIXING A BORDER WITH THE FRENCH 83 

on both sides of Eed River, without objection from 
the Adaes, whose claim the Spanish had inherited ; 
that there was no reason why the Spanish shoukl 
appropriate all the undivided seven leagues between 
the two forts ; and, finally, that he was acting under 
superior orders and could not desist, that if he were 
attacked with arms he would defend himself with 
them, and that the consequences would rest on him 
that was to blame. This was a dignified and con- 
vincing answer. Saint-Denis might not have scored 
with it on all points before an international tribunal, 
but it is the best resume of the controversy that the 
documents afford. And it seems to have settled 
the matter so far as the French were concerned. 
The discussion of it thenceforth is relegated to the 
Spanish. 

Little more needs to be said concerning this epi- 
sode. In 1736 Sandoval was succeeded as governor 
by Don Carlos de Franquis, who immediately began 
an attack on him, using especially the charge as to 
the removal of the French fort. The attack soon 
degenerated into a persecution, and before it was 
over Franquis had to be silenced by a viceregal 
order. In the course of it, Sandoval was subjected 
to various outrages ; his papers were seized, he was 
imprisoned and put in the stocks, and a heavy fine 
was imposed upon him. At length, however, he 
succeeded in shaking off his relentless foe, and it is 
to be hoped that he had no more such experiences. 
The records, at least, disclose none. 

For a while during the period of this trouble 



84 TEXAS 

there was an unusual strictness on the border. All 
the intercourse with the French was suspended, and 
business in that quarter must have become very- 
dull. But this was only temporary. By and by 
the old illicit commerce was resumed and went on 
as actively as ever. It could hardly be called 
smuggling, for that would suggest a degree of con- 
cealment that was doubtless wanting. It seems to 
have become the prevailing occupation on the 
border, and to have attracted all settlers, including 
both officials and padres. 

As to the matter of limits, it gave no further 
trouble, except for a momentary protest of the 
French governor against the establishment of a new 
Spanish presidio at Orcoquisac on the Trinity, about 
1756, and in 1762 it was put entirely out of sight 
for the time by the surrender of western Louisiana 
to Spain. But with the Louisiana Purchase there 
was a resurrection of it, which in its proper place 
must claim special attention. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 

It is sad to follow the course o£ breaking fortune 
or of social and political decay, or even of that long 
drawn out existence in which survival is the out- 
come of a mild environment rather than of fitness. 
This, however, is a duty that the historian of Span- 
ish colonial enterprise cannot avoid ; and his task is 
rendered more unpleasant by the fact that much of 
the energy whose workings he must trace was born 
of the noblest impulses of humanity. In the "evil 
dreams " lent by Nature, from which we do not yet 
seem prepared to wake, the race is to the swift and 
the battle to the strong ; and if there is one cry that 
rings from every page of history and biography, it 
is that weakness and incapacity are punished more 
than actual misdeed. It will not be so forever, 
and that it now is serves only to show how far our 
practice lags behind our ideal of justice. 

For more than a century of almost undisturbed 
possession Spain failed to people Texas, or even to 
Christianize its Indians. The missions were multi- 
plied, but with all the devotion of their ministry 
they were ineffective. For the Apache and Co- 
manche of the west they were impossible, and 



86 TEXAS 

among the gentler and more easily domesticated 
Indians of the east they could claim little genuine 
success. Even had the soldiers not done so much 
to alienate the Indians and paralyze the efforts of 
the missionaries, the difficulties of the work must 
have been too great to overcome. The method of 
confining the natives, accustomed to a free and 
wandering life, in pueblos in a condition much akin 
to slavery, and forcing them through a tiresome 
round of formal services and of manual labor, was 
hardly calculated to make them love either Christ 
or the Spaniards. They held together while the 
gifts were sufficiently abundant, but when these 
gave out they ran away, and the soldiers were little 
inclined to take the trouble either to hold or to 
recapture them. 

Almost from the beginning of the work in Texas 
there seem to have been some among the Spanish 
who distrusted the system of colonizing by means 
of missions and presidios, and it was not long until 
there were very positive and outspoken objections 
to it. In 1727-8, General Pedro Rivera made a 
round of inspection among the establishments in 
Texas. He seems to have found them all in bad 
condition, and he recommended that the presidio 
of Texas ^ should be suppressed, and that the num- 
ber of soldiers in the other three belonging to the 
province should be reduced nearly one half. In 
1729 this was done, and at once there ensued a hot 
controversy over the matter. The missionaries pro- 
^ Or Dolores, as the documents sometimes call it. 



THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 87 

tested vehemently, the governor backed them, and 
Rivera replied. Not being able to secure the resto- 
ration of the presidio of Texas, which they claimed 
ought to have been strengthened rather than sup- 
pressed, the Queretaran friars obtained leave to 
move their three missions immediately under its 
protection from the east to Bcjar. This change 
was made in 1731, but the quarrel went on. Re- 
peated inspections by military officials resulted, 
almost as a matter of course, in reports and recom- 
mendations adverse to the friars, and in further 
contraction of missionary effort. So far as this 
policy was based on a recognition of the futility of 
attempting to civilize the Indians by force, it may 
be regarded as wise ; but one cannot avoid sympa- 
thizing with the missionaries as against the soldiers. 
Their views appear sounder, and their allegations 
more truthful. The provocations they had to en- 
dure from the vicious presidials and mission guards, 
who systematically mistreated the Indians, must 
have been enough to destroy all their patience ; 
and it seems strange, in fact, that they held on as 
faithfully as they did. 

One of the arguments used against the system 
of colonizing by missions and presidios was that 
experience had proved the results to be wholly 
incommensurate with the cost. The auditor Alta- 
mira, writing in 1744, asserted that the total ex- 
pense to the royal treasury of the colonizing work 
in Texas had been three million pesos, and that the 
annual cost of keeping up the establishments was 



88 TEXAS 

then sixty-three thousand, but that there were fewer 
settlers than in 1722. In his opinion the treasury- 
would never be relieved from the burden — not to 
speak of getting a revenue from the province — by 
means of the three presidios in Texas. They had 
been located with too little regard to the attraction 
of settlers. Altamira suggested the plan of using 
the money spent on the presidios to pay the expenses, 
for eight or ten years at the outset, of colonists who 
would undertake to protect themselves. In this 
way he thought Texas could be made at length a 
revenue-producing province, but his f)lan does not 
seem to have had any consideration. 

The courage and persistence of the friars were 
not diminished by opposition or ill treatment, and 
when the Lipan Apaches asked for a mission in 
1745, they were disposed to try it ; but the murder 
of one of their number by the Indians caused the 
postponement of the enterprise for several years. 
In 1744 they had got permission to establish three 
missions along the river San Xavier, on the west- 
ern frontier of the traversed region ; and by means 
of unaccustomed heljD from a military inspector they 
had succeeded in having this frontier strengthened 
soon after by the addition of a presidio with a gar- 
rison of fifty men. But Indian converts were hard 
to gather, the soldiers were unmanageable, and the 
work did not prosper. This led the president of 
the missions to propose a scheme somewhat like 
that of Altamira already mentioned, and which re- 
ceived just as little consideration. Finallj^ when 



THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 89 

the establishment of the San Saba mission was in 
view and it was proposed to transfer the San Xavier 
Indians to San Antonio, they all ran away, and the 
new foundations were abandoned. 

The Apache mission project was realized in 1757. 
The government founded among them on the San 
Saba River a presidio named San Luis de Amaril- 
las, with a force of one hundred men, and the mis- 
sion, which was located a league and a half away, 
was established at the expense of an enthusiastic 
supporter of the Franciscans, Pedro Romero de 
Terreros. He had gone so far as to offer to pay 
all the cost of as many as twenty missions for three 
years, but the drain on his estate was never required. 
He did not have to pay the expenses of even one 
very long. The Apaches (Lipans) were at war 
with the Comanches, and had accepted the mission 
for the sake of Spanish help. But, as might have 
been expected, it was not long before the Coman- 
ches came in search of the new establishments. 
They were said to be two thousand strong ; and 
while they did not attack the presidio, they massa- 
cred all the inmates of the mission, except two or 
three that escaped. 

The mission had been an evident failure from 
the time of its establishment. The Apaches re- 
fused to form a pueblo for it, at first excusing 
themselves under various pretenses, and finally say- 
ing openly, that while they wished to be friends 
with the Spanish, they preferred their wandering 
life. Still it had been argued that the erection of 



90 TEXAS 

the presidio should go on, because its abandonment 
might be regarded by the Indians as indicative of 
discouragement and cowardice, and cause them to 
despise the Spanish arms. So the post had been 
held, aud the unhappy padres had remained to 
meet their fate. 

This raid provoked a retaliatory expedition 
against the Comanches, which was organized on a 
scale rather extensive for the colonizers of Texas. 
The force consisted of five hundred Spanish and a 
number of Apaches. They marched into the Co- 
manche country, and easily found their enemies ; 
but these were, according to Spanish reports, six 
thousand strong, and they were shut up in a fort 
over which waved a French banner.^ One must 
suppose that the Spaniards had lost that fiery cour- 
age and appetite for the slaughter of savages which 
their chroniclers attribute to the followers of Cortes 
and De Soto ; for when the Indians sallied forth 
to the attack in military order and armed, not with 
the usual bow and arrow, but with musket, sabre, 
and lance, the invaders fled with great precipitancy. 
And shaming still more the traditions of the con- 
qidstadores, they left their baggage and six pieces 
of artillery in possession of the Comanches. Such 
was the end of the costly and boasted expedition 
that was to humble the pride of the Indian foe. 

Thenceforth the missionary activity rapidly sub- 
sided, and no other colonizing impulse was substi- 
tuted. The reports and recommendations of the 
^ This must not be taken as proving French complicity. 



THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 91 

successive inspectors serve as degree marks to in- 
dicate the decline of the colony. In 1767 the 
Marques de Rubi made an official visit of inspection 
to the Texas establishments and reported them to 
be generally in bad condition. One noteworthy 
recommendation he made was that the Apaches be 
trusted no longer ; that the idea of dealing with 
them by means of missions should be given up, and 
that they should be forced into subjection by using 
if necessary the Comanches against them ; and that 
those of them who were captured should be carried 
not to mission pueblos, but to the interior of 
Mexico, and that the tribe should be dissolved. 

In the same year, 1767, two new missions that 
had been founded for the Apaches on the upj>er 
San Antonio were abandoned, and after the visit 
of Rubi both governor and viceroy found it hard 
to keep either the missionaries or the settlers in 
the province. The changes made as the outcome 
of the visit did not render the task less difficult. 
In 1772 Pilar and Orcoquisac, the two presidios 
of the east, under whose protection the Zacatecan 
friars had kept up their missions after the Quere- 
tarans had removed their three to Bejar, were sup- 
pressed, and that of San Luis at San Saba was 
moved into Coahuila. Thereupon the Zacatecans 
also had to retreat west. This gave the district 
from which the province took its name and in 
which its earliest Spanish settlements were located, 
the country of the Tejas Indians, back to the na- 
tives. The frontier of actual occuj)ation receded 



92 TEXAS 

to Bejar and La Bahia ; and but for the attach- 
ment of some eastern settlers to their accustomed 
locality, the Spanish hold on it might have been 
completely broken. A few, however, of the refu- 
gees longed for their old haunts, and by and by 
they went back, led by Antonio Gil y Barbo, and 
formed on the Trinity a settlement to which they 
gave the name Bucareli. About 1778 they moved 
to the neighborhood of the old mission of Guada- 
lupe founded by Ramon in 1716, and there they 
built for their protection the Old Stone Fort, whose 
recent demolition has been already noted.^ 

Meanwhile the Queretarans had given up their 
missions to the Zacatecans and retired from Texas 
altogether. Then in 1778 came a new inspector, 
General Croix, the general commandant of the 
north Mexican States, which had just before been 
organized into what were called the Provincias 
Internas. He recommended the conc^tration of 
all the establishments at Bejar. The only thing 
that would have been left for another inspector to 
recommend would have been complete withdrawal 
from the province ; but for some reason the recom- 
mendations of Croix were not considered. 

Even the reports of the friars themselves could 
not make a good showing for the Texas work. 
Padre Morfi, who was along with Inspector Croix 
in 1778, said that the establishments at Bejar had 
cost the king eighty thousand pesos and would not 
sell for eighty. The statistics, as well as they can 

^ See p. 61. 



THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 93 

yet be put together, indicate that there were two 
thousand to twenty-five hundred Indians attached 
to the missions in 1762, four hundred and fifty to 
five hundred in 1785, and about the same number 
in 1793. The character of the Indios reducidos 
seems meanwhile to have failed more rapidly than 
their numbers, and towards the last they were in 
the most wretched condition from nearly every 
point of view. At length, in 1794, came the order 
for the secularization of the missions, and the pro- 
cess began at once, though it was not complete for 
some years. The support from the royal treasurj' 
was withdrawn, and the mission lands were dis- 
tributed among the Indians, who were turned over 
to the ministration of the regular, or secular 
clergy. 

The expiring flicker of missionary energy came 
with the founding of Refugio, below La Bahia, to- 
wards the coast, in 1791. Twenty years later sev- 
eral of the missions had still a few Indians round 
them, but in 1812 they were finally suppressed and 
the Indians dispersed by the Spanish government. 

One generalization should be made in passing. 
With the French on their eastern border the Span- 
ish had practically no trouble. The danger from 
that quarter was just enough to stimulate them to 
take possession of Texas, in which they were as- 
sisted rather than hindered by the French. The 
real trouble they had was with the Indians. It was 
among those right around Bejar and in the eastern 
districts that their mission work succeeded best. 



94 TEXAS . 

But the San Antonio group of settlements was con- 
tinually in peril from the Apaches, whom no mis- 
sion could affect. It was B^jar, and not Adaes, that 
required strengthening, and soldiers or determined 
settlers were needed more than priests. There was 
also great clanger from the Comanches, but this 
was not realized till after the ill-starred attempt to 
Christianize the Apaches. When Spain lost Texas, 
along with Mexico, it at least got rid of some seri- 
ous trouble. 

As the declining tendency of the Spanish gov- 
ernment in the northern and remoter provinces of 
Mexico became more manifest, an effort was made 
to check it by revising the organization. In 1776 
these provinces, which were called the Provincias 
Internas, were put in charge of a general command- 
ant with almost complete palatine authority and 
directly responsible to the court at Madrid. Gen- 
eral Croix, who made the inspection of 1778, was 
the first to hold the place. In 1785 the authority 
of the viceroy was again extended over these pro- 
vinces, and they were divided into an eastern, a 
central, and a western group, each with its own 
military commandant. In 1787 they were formed 
into two groups, the eastern and the western. In 
1793 they were again consolidated under a govern- 
ment indejoendent of the viceroy, except for two or 
three provinces that were restored to his jurisdic- 
tion. Finally, by an order of 1804, carried out in 
1812, the old arrangement of an eastern and a 
western district was restored. 



'Of. /OS 




Cfr 



■J v^ 



HE LAS 






\ 




PaOYiMCIAS ISTEHHAS 



BE 




for foi /(js /oif 



^ 



]\I;ip No. 2. Tlic K.istcni Int.'inal Piovinccs of Mexico, sli 
(From a tracing of an original ni tlie Arcliivei 



"" ''" 'f 9\ 97 gC ^^ 




loniularios of t.lie Spanish Province of Texas, 
fliciallj- promulgated ni 1816.) 



THE FAILURE OF THE SPANISH WAY 95 

These changes remind one strongly of those 
made in the Roman Empire as its dissolution 
approached. They were, however, less rigorous 
and systematic than those of the Eoman emperors. 
There was a want of complete and definite reor- 
ganization with each change extending to all de- 
partments of the government. The failure in this 
respect left some jurisdictions divided while others 
were not, and the result was the intricate and hope- 
lessly confused system that has already been de- 
scribed.^ 

The weakening of the Spanish hold in Texas was 
but the prelude to its giving way. With the revo- 
lutionary movement that freed the South American 
republics and Mexico — and Texas along with it, 
of course — from Spain, there is no reason to speak 
at length here. In its Mexican aspect, this revo- 
lution began with the rising of Hidalgo in 1810. 
It was caused by various grievances of the Mexi- 
cans, one of the most important being the law 
which gave native Spaniards superior privileges in 
Mexico to the people of that country themselves, 
even to those born of Spanish parents. The work 
begun by Hidalgo was carried on after his death 
by Morelos, and, when he in turn had been cap- 
tured and executed, by a niimber of less promi- 
nent leaders, until it was apparently stamped out 
in 1817. But the revolutionists were only driven 
into holes and corners and forced to keep quiet for 
two or three years. Then they became, all at once, 

^ See p. 63. 



96 TEXAS 

as bold and active as ever. The signal for this 
new outbreak was the news of the Spanish revolu- 
tion of 1820. This time the movement was suc- 
cessful, and in 1821 Mexico became an independent 
nation. 

In Texas the operation of this revolutionary ac- 
tivity was to invite filibusters into the province. 
The first wave of the revolution had attracted to 
that quarter the most important of the filibuster- 
ing expeditions from the United States, and the 
last efforts of the insurrectionists, before the tem- 
porary suppression in 1817, had some diversion in 
their favor created by another such invasion. This 
summary will show sufficiently, for the present, the 
connection of Texas with the movement. But the 
effects of the separation from Spain were of much 
consequence ; it dovibtless facilitated the Anglo- 
American colonization and simplified the revolu- 
tion of 1836 materially. 



CHAPTER X 

MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 

The severance from Spain was a great improve- 
ment. It was of incalculable advantage to Mexico 
itself, which has since attained a development of 
resources and a degree of civilization that could 
not possibly have come to it as a Spanish colony. 
As for Texas, the change enabled it to gather 
strength more easily for its own self-assertion when 
the time should come. It had endured the yoke 
of Spain, with almost passive acquiescence, for 
nearly a hundred years ; but with Mexico it had 
patience for no more than fifteen. It was, how- 
ever, a very different Texas with which Mexico 
had to deal. During these fifteen years the mur- 
mur of quarrels among presidial, missionary, and 
vecino and of the appeals for help, which was 
heard by the viceroy but rarely and by the king 
almost never, changed to the clamor of those who 
were accustomed to enforce their rights and in case 
of necessity to help themselves. 

Meanwhile the Mexican leaders, unused to such 
bad political manners, and not understanding the 
people whom the ill fortune of Mexico had brought 
within its boundaries, gave no great heed to Texas, 



98 TEXAS 

but went on with their petty game of putting down 
one and setting up another, until it becomes almost 
impossible to follow. Iturbide, the chief agent in 
freeing Mexico from Spain, soon threw off his 
sheep's clothing of liberator and established him- 
self as emperor, but he paid the price of the 
ambitious for his brief season of authority. After 
a confused struggle the republicans succeeded in 
expelling him from Mexico in 1823, and on his 
return the next year he was captured and shot. 

On the expulsion of Iturbide a provisional gov- 
ernment was set up which lasted for about a year 
and a half ; but the confusion continued, — in fact 
it has prevailed nearly the whole time since, until 
the firm, strong hand of Diaz has suppressed it, — 
and the hurly-burly of rising and falling heroes 
of the moment, the storm of vituperation, and the 
melee of actual fighting grew fairly indescribable. 
Out of it emerged in 1824 a nominal republic, the 
form of which was patterned mainly after that of 
the United States ; but the essence of It shows 
clearly the indelible leopard spots of Spain. Its 
constitution, which became the standard about 
which the Mexican Liberals afterwards rallied, was 
fashioned partly on the model of that framed at 
Philadelphia in 1787, and partly In imitation of the 
one given to Spain in 1812. It certainly illustrates 
in a high degree the revolutionary progress towards 
the establishment of human rights which had been 
made since 1789, but it serves also to mark the in- 
completeness of the process. While it destroyed 



MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 99 

many landmarks of hoary privilege and time-hon- 
ored abuse, it established the Roman Catholic reli- 
gion, forbidding the exercise of any other, and it 
could not go the length of adopting what was then 
specially reverenced in England and the United 
States as the great bulwark of individual freedom 

— trial by jury. 

Practically the Mexican Republic was centralized 
from its origin. Unlike the colonies of Great 
Britain in America, which had no common superior 
except in the mother country, the Mexican provinces 
had been subject from the time of the conquest to 
a local central authority that was clothed with sub- 
stantially all the power of the Spanish crown. It 
had been their ordinary experience to be neglected 
and left to guard their own interests as best they 
could ; but this had not begotten in them any desire 
for local self-government, nor any real conception 
of manly self-dependence. It was, in fact, between 
two failures of the Spanish government, the one to 
take care of them, and the other to teach them to 
care for themselves, that the prosperity of the colo- 
nies fell to the ground. 

What genuine republicanism there was in Mexico 

— and there was no little — was drawn by and by 
into a struggle against centralism, which the pseudo- 
republicans and would-be tyrants were seeking to 
promote for their own purposes. Of this latter 
class the most conspicuous example was Santa 
Anna, who after obtaining general support as the 
champion of popular rights began a movement to 



100 TEXAS 

overthrow the constitution of 1824 and set liiinself 
up as supreme despot. Tlie Texas Revolution was 
only a whirlpool on the outer edge of the resulting 
cyclone ; but into this whirlpool the " Napoleon of 
the West " was drawn, and by it he was over- 
whelmed, just as success was apparently crowning 
his efforts. 

This rapid survey has carried the reader forward 
over ground that must now be covered more slowly 
and with more strongly focussed attention. 

In accordance with what might have been ex- 
pected from the really centralized status of Mexico 
at the outset, the general government, not seeming 
to think of itself at all as formed by the aggregation 
of the provinces, provided, in the acta constitutlva 
of 1824,^ for their erection into states. One of 
these states was composed of Nuevo Leon, Coa- 
huila, and Texas. Soon afterwards Nuevo Leon 
was made a separate state ; but Texas, in spite of 
all its efforts, remained a dependency of Coahuila 
until the revolution begun in 1835. 

Some of the new states were a little slow in get- 
ting on their feet. That of Coahuila and Texas 
had a congress assembled at Saltillo in August, 
1824, but it did not adopt a constitution for itself 
till 1827. This constitution provided that, while 
the sovereignty of the state was in the people com- 

^ A provisional constitution promnlgated January 21, 1824. The 
constitution of 1824 was put into effect one provision after another 
as they were framed, and the instrument was promulgated in its 
entirety without popular ratification, October 4. 



MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 101 

posing it, they were not to exercise that sovereignty 
except as the constitution provided. Such was the 
extraordinary principle on which was oi'ganized this 
tribe of Young-Men- Afraid-of-Themselves ! 

By the constitution of 1827 the state of Coahuila 
and Texas was divided into three departments : 
Saltillo, Monclova, and Texas ; and afterwards 
Parras was cut off from Saltillo and made a fourth. 
The congress of the state was to have twelve mem- 
bers, the apportionment of Texas being two. These 
congressmen were to be chosen not by popular 
vote, but by electors. Roman Catholicism was to be 
the only religion tolerated, children born of slaves 
were to be free, and the introduction of slaves into 
the state was to cease within six months from the 
time the constitution should be published. The 
governor, who was chosen by popular vote, was to 
appoint the head official, or political chief, in each 
department. 

The new " Federal Republic " of Mexico moved 
off on its career under the constitution of 182-4 with 
Guadalupe Victoria and Nicolas Bravo respectively 
as president and vice-president. Soon afterwards 
the working of its politics was greatly complicated 
by invoking the agency of secret societies. For 
this purpose Free Masonry was used. Immediately 
after the overthrow of Iturbide the republicans in 
favor of centralization were enrolled, for the most 
part, in Scottish rite lodges, which went zealously 
into politics. As an offset to these was organized 
about 1825 a new Masonic political party of federal 



102 TEXAS 

and more purely democratic principles, whose ad- 
herents were formed into lodges of the Yorkish 
rite. These rapidly obtained the upper hand of the 
£Jscoceses, as the Scottish rite Masons were called, 
whose leaders began to desert them in large num- 
bers and go over to the Yorhinos ; but among 
those who held on to the Escoceses was Santa 
Anna, as well as Vice-President Bravo. In 1827 
the Escoceses began to call themselves by the new 
name of Novenarios, because of a plan of gather- 
ing recruits for their party by nines which they had 
adopted ; and late in the same year, in anticipation 
of a Yorhino movement to destroy their order, they 
issued a manifesto demanding the suppression of 
secret societies, stricter adherence to the constitu- 
tion, and the dismissal of the existing ministry and 
the United States minister Poinsett, who were iden- 
tified with the Yorhinos. An abortive effort fol- 
lowed to support this declaration with arms, and 
the sequel was the banishment of the leaders of the 
Escoceses^ Bravo among them, and the practical 
ruin of the party, 

A new presidential election came on in September, 
1828, and Gomez Pedraza was elected president 
and Anastasio Bustamante vice-president ; but the 
partisans of Vicente Guerrero, the defeated candi- 
date for president, attempted an uprising under 
Santa Anna at Perote. It was a weak effort, and 
Santa Anna with all his force was about to be cap- 
tured, when an insurrection against the ministry in 
the citv of Mexico drew away the government troops 



MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 103 

and saved him. The result of this outbreak in the 
city was the flight of Pedraza, and about a month 
later Guerrero was elected to succeed Victoria ; 
and when the term of the latter ended on April 1, 
1829, Guerrero was duly installed. 

All parties were now too far away from their 
constitutional moorings for any semblance of orderly 
government. Under the existing circumstances it 
was impossible for any one but a man of prudence 
and decision to rule the country, and Guerrero had 
neither of these qualities. One success that he en- 
joyed ought, with wise management, to have given 
him all the prestige needed for his work. In the 
summer of 1829 the Spanish sent an expedition to 
reconquer Mexico, which captured Tampico and set 
the whole nation in great fear. Guerrero was 
invested with dictatorial powers, but the Spanish 
force was defeated by his generals Santa Anna and 
Terdn. The universal rejoicing seemed for the mo- 
ment to indicate that the troubles of the president 
were over, but they had only begun. 

In the course of this affair Guerrero had taken 
a step which deserves notice because of its special 
bearing on Texas. He had been induced by one 
of his supporters, Torn el, to issue a decree on Sep- 
tember 15, 1829, abolishing slavery. Tornel, in a 
book of his published later, stated that the aim of 
this was to erect a barrier against further immigra- 
tion from the United States, the consequences of 
which the Mexican leaders were then beginning to 
foresee and to dread very much. The decree had 



104 TEXAS 

no effect in Mexico south of the Rio Grande, where 
slavery under the name hardly existed at all ; and 
as to how it affected Texas, the discussion will come 
more conveniently farther along. 

In the decree conferring dictatorial powers on 
Guerrero at the time of the Spanish invasion, the 
ambitious and dissembling Bustamante found the 
means to overthrow his chief and possess himself 
of the presidency. Assuming the role, which is 
always open to the demagogue, of preserver of the 
constitution and liberator of the people, in Decem- 
ber, 1829, he stirred up an insurrection against 
Guerrero, who weakly abandoned the capital and 
left the way open for Bustamante to claim and 
exercise the presidential authority. February 14, 
1831, the unfortunate real president was captured 
and shot. During the interval Santa Anna and 
others had held out for him a while, but finally sub- 
mitted to Bustamante. In Mexican history, how- 
ever, Guerrero has been placed among the enshrined 
heroes of the Republic. 

For a time it looked as if the country were tired 
of revolution, and Bustamante would be allowed to 
govern it in peace, but in 1832 everything was boil- 
ing again. In January of that year the troops at 
Vera Cruz demanded the dismissal of the ministry, 
and invited Santa Anna to lead them in enforcing 
the demand. Then followed a bloody campaign 
between the two sides lasting nearly through the 
year, and being brought to an end in November 
by an agreement according to which Pedraza was 



MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 105 

to fill out the remnant of his unexpired term. 
Through all this series of kaleidoscopic changes it 
was somehow remembered that he had once been 
elected to serve four years dating from April 1, 
1829. 

While Bustamante was in power there was 
passed another decree affecting the interests of 
Texas. It was that of April 6, 1830, which for- 
bade further entry into the frontier states of Mex- 
ico of colonists from adjacent foreign countries. 
This decree was due to the initiative of Lucas Ala- 
man, secretary of relations. ^ It may be regarded as 
the first cause of serious trouble leading towards 
the Texas Revolution. It was also under Busta- 
mante, during the troubles of 1832, that Texas was 
first drawn into the current of Mexican revolution- 
ary politics. 

April 1, 1833, the administration of Pedraza 
ended, and he was succeeded by Santa Anna as 
president, with Gomez Farias as vice-president. 
For the next three years the history of Mexico is 
even more confused than in the previous foui-, and 
it is marked by a peculiar mixture of tragedy and 
comedy. The comedy consisted in the repeated 
vain efforts of Santa Anna to sacrifice Farias on 
the altar of reform, while he himself was seeking 
his opportunity as the champion of its enemies. 
The tragedy lay in his success at last, and in his 
driving Mexico through blood and fire uncon- 
sciously to her own humiliation. 

^ That is, of interior and exterior, or home and foreign rela- 
tions. 



106 TEXAS 

The new administration opened with loud calls 
from its supporters for reforms that should sub- 
ordinate the military and ecclesiastical to the civil 
authority. Santa Anna stayed away from the capi- 
tal with the deliberate intention, it was claimed, of 
avoiding the opposition that such reforms would be 
likely to provoke, and left the initiation of the work 
to Farias. In about six weeks, when the agitation 
was getting warm, he assumed his office ; but a 
few days later he marched off to put down some 
revolutionists and left Farias again in charge. 
Then Santa Anna was captured — doubtless accord- 
ing to a prearranged scheme — by his own troops, 
who became revolutionists for the moment, and was 
proclaimed dictator in spite of himself. Thereupon 
the leaders nearly all ran away from the capital to 
join him, and a rising occurred in the city ; but 
Farias got together a handful of militia and put 
down the disturbance. His force grew rapidly, 
and Santa Anna saw that the farce had turned 
into a fiasco. He had to escape and try another 
plan. 

For a few days Santa Anna was in the discharge 
of his presidential duties again, and then he under- 
took another campaign against the insurgents, who 
this time were forced to capitulate. He next played 
the president a few days more, and then in Decem- 
ber, 1833, he retired — for his health's sake, as he 
claimed — to his estate, where he remained some 
four months. 

In April, 1834, he judged the time was ripe, so 



MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 107 

he proceeded to the capital and took final charge 
of the government. The reaction against reform 
had developed into a strong movement in favor of 
religion, privilege, and centralization. It led to a 
declaration in May, 1834, by the force stationed at 
Cuernavaca, of principles in accord with this move- 
ment, and a call for Santa Anna to lead in enfor- 
cing them. He accepted the call and ruled as dic- 
tator till January, 1835, when he retired again to 
his estate, leaving one of his henchmen, General 
Barragan, as president ad interim. Meanwhile he 
had called a congress. 

During his active work as dictator, Santa Anna 
had dissolved the national congress, as well as those 
of the states, and after his retirement the congress 
he had called kept up the work of centralization. 
In October, 1835, it decreed the abolition of the 
federal system and enacted a statute for the pro- 
visional organization of a completely centralized 
government, the states being turned into depart- 
ments. 

Against this overthrow of the constitution of 
1824 Texas alone held out. The two states of 
Zacatecas and Coahuila-Texas had resisted the 
earlier centralizing measures of the national gov- 
ernment ; but in April the legislature of Coahuila 
and Texas adjourned to escape dissolution by the 
soldiers of General Cos, and in May, 1835, the re- 
sistance of Zacatecas was crushed by Santa Anna 
in a bloody battle. It was only in Texas that con- 
tumelious resistance continued, but that far-away 



108 TEXAS 

section had to wait a little for its chastisement on 
the convenience of Santa Anna. By and by he 
came and saw, but did not conquer. On the Texas 
stone was broken the would-be arbiter of the des- 
tinies of Mexico. 

Among the other troubles of Barragan, the presi- 
dent ad interim^ was an attempt made by General 
Jose Antonio Meji'a to overthrow the existing 
regime with the help of a shipload of people whom 
he had brought from New Orleans to Tampico, 
most of whom afterwards claimed — though with 
some evidence to the contrary — that they thought 
they were simply emigrants bound for Texas. The 
expedition was a disastrous failure, and it deserves 
notice here only because it has some significance 
for the history of Texas, which will appear far- 
ther on. 

This general, and perhaps in some degrees tedi- 
ous, survey of the history of Mexico has been given 
in order to make clear the genesis of the revolution 
of 1836. The most essential cause of this revolu- 
tion was doubtless in the conflict between two in- 
harmonious varieties of civilization, independently 
of any accident of Mexican policy ; but the occa- 
sion for it — a fact which too many writers on the 
subject have failed to explain — was a movement 
that began with the national government of Mexico 
and spread triumphantly until it reached the north- 
eastern frontier. There it was interrupted by com- 
ing upon a sad patch of new cloth in the old gar- 



MEXICO AT THE WHEEL 109 

meut, a Texas of which neither Frenchman nor 
Spaniard in the earlier days had ever dreamed. 

It now becomes necessary to explain how this new 
Texas took the place of that with which we have 
hitherto, except for a few references, been deal- 
ing. 



CHAPTER XI 

ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 

During the century in which Spain enjoyed the 
opportunity to colonize Texas, only to prove its in- 
capacity for the work, had gradually risen the storm 
that was to sweep the Mexican successors of the 
Spaniard from that land. But it first gathered, as 
it were, behind the mountain. Want of Sj^anish 
strength and energy at the begiiming had suffered 
the stronger French to intrude themselves between 
Mexico and the Enoflish on the Atlantic coast. 
This intrusion, however, can be regarded only in 
the light of an advantage to Spain in its efforts at 
colonial expansion ; for while France strove with 
one hand to keep back the English, with the other 
she beckoned the Spanish on to the Sabine. 

Time removed the French buffer, and the danger 
became at once apparent. After 1763 England 
and Spain were face to face at the great central 
river ; and if France had not been able to keep her 
old enemies from breaking over the Alleghanies, it 
was abundantly evident that Spain could not pre- 
vent them from crossing the Mississippi. There 
was another turn or two of the wheel, and the 
boundary was at the Sabine ; and one or two more 
and it had reached the Rio Grande. 



ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 111 

In front of the steadily advancing mass of Anglo- 
Americans went the scouts and flying columns. 
First were the adventurers who pushed forward 
singly or in bands to spy out and perchance in some 
measure to enjoy the land, and then followed the 
hordes of more steady-going colonists, seeking for 
themselves new homes under better economic condi- 
tions. This last was just the kind of a movement 
that Altamira had wished to promote on the part of 
the Spanish in 1744, but he addressed an unappre- 
. ciative government. It was the certain herald of 
a revolution more disastrous to Mexico than the 
worst of its selfish politicians would consciously 
have risked. 

When the Anglo-Americans first entered Texas 
the records do not disclose. There is proof of their 
presence as scattered settlers, especially in the 
eastern part, considerably before the end of the 
eighteenth century, but how or when they came 
there seems to be nothing to show. The first re- 
corded Anglo-American entry is Nolan's expedition, 
which took place during the years 1799-1801. 

Just why Nolan invaded Texas is not known 
with absolute certainty, for the evidence relative to 
it is not entirely free from suspicion. He was a 
jirotege of General James Wilkinson, commander- 
in-chief of the United States army, and Wilkinson, 
though himself secretly a pensioner of Spain, was 
ready to further any enterprise that might be di- 
rected against Louisiana or Mexico. These facts 
suggest that Nolan may have had his cue from 



112 TEXAS 

Wilkinson. It has been surmised that President 
Jefferson had a hand in the matter. If so, he must 
have used Wilkinson's agency. The best support 
for inferences like this lies in the fact that a report 
on Texas, such as Nolan might have been able to 
make if he had returned alive, would have been quite 
useful either to Jefferson or to Wilkinson ; and the 
relations of Wilkinson with Jefferson on the one 
hand and Nolan on the other were such as might 
have been easily used to secure it. 

There is, however, considerable source material 
bearing on the purposes of the expedition. Accord- 
ing to the story of Ellis Bean, who was a member 
of the party, Nolan had been carrying on for some 
years a trade — illicit, of course — with the Spanish 
in San Antonio, and simply wished to go into that 
country again ; the implication being that it was 
for trading purposes. The archives of Mexico, as 
the pertinent documents they contain are summa- 
rized by a writer in the " Texas Almanac " for 1868, 
show the following facts relative to the aims of 
Nolan : — 

In July, 1797, he obtained a passport from the 
governor of Louisiana to go to Texas for the pur- 
pose of buying horses for a Louisiana regiment. He 
proceeded to San Antonio, from which place he sent 
a request to General Commandant de Nava at Chi- 
huahua for leave to buy the horses. He got per- 
mission and bought about thirteen hundred, which 
he pastured for a while on Trinity River and then 
took to Louisiana. But in 1799 a new governor of 



ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 113 

Louisiana sent a letter through the hands of the 
viceroy to de Nava suggesting that foreigners enter- 
ing the Spanish dominions be arrested, because he 
had understood that some Americans meant to come 
in to cultivate relations with the Indians and stir 
up a revolution. He asked that Nolan should be 
closely watched. Later in the year 1799 the same 
governor sent de Nava an official letter recommend- 
ing that no American be allowed to examine the 
country, and stating that Nolan was a dangerous 
man and a sacrilegious hypocrite who had deceived 
the previous governor to get a passport. He said 
it was of importance to secure and make way with 
him finally ; that he was commissioned by Wilkin- 
son to make maps of the country and persuade the 
friendly Indians to rebel against the Spanish. 
Accordingly, in August, 1800, de Nava ordered the 
arrest of Nolan in case he should ever return. In 
the following October came information from a 
Spanish official in Louisiana that Nolan was organ- 
izing a crowd of thirty or forty men to enter Texas 
under the pretext of hunting wild horses, and that 
a protest had been made to the authorities at 
Natchez, but that they would probably not inter- 
fere. In December the same official sent a volun- 
tary statement made to him by a man named 
Richards who had deserted Nolan on learning his 
purpose. Richards said that Nolan had explained 
to him his plan as being to build a fort near the 
settlements of the Caddo Indians, and from that 
base to explore the country, hunt for mines, and, 



114 TEXAS 

after getting horses enough, to go to Islas Negras 
and Kentucky. There they would be joined by 
many others, and by that time Nolan would be au- 
thorized to conquer Texas. 

Putting all the facts together, it appears a proba- 
ble conclusion that Nolan must have had some such 
purpose as that attributed to him by Richards in 
entering Texas. He could not have failed to under- 
stand that the number of men he carried would be 
regarded as too great for any peaceable enterj^rise, 
and that it would excite some counter effort of the 
Spanish authorities. He must have contemplated 
resistance with arms to these authorities from the 
outset, but he doubtless relied on help from the 
Indians to make that resistance effectual. 

The expedition set out from Natchez in October, 
1800. Just before it started, the United States 
authorities, on complaint of the Spanish consul, 
made an investigation ; but Nolan's passport pre- 
vented any interference with him. Then the consul 
wrote to the Spanish commandant at Washita to 
arrest the party, and a Spanish force of fifty actually 
intercepted the little baud of twenty-one, but for 
some reason did not try to stop it. Nolan and his 
men passed on ; and after losing three of their 
number by desertion, they penetrated Texas to the 
Brazos, where they camped and gathered some 
three hundred wild horses. Then they went to a 
Comanche village on the south fork of Red River, 
where they spent a month. After getting back to 
their camp they were attacked, March 21, 1801, by 



ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 115 

a force of one hundred men that had been sent from 
Nacogdoches to find them ; and after a fight lasting 
about three hours, in which Nolan was killed and 
three men wounded, the little band was captured. 

The scene of this conflict was somewhere near 
the site of the present city of Waco. Those be- 
longing to the party at the time were fourteen 
Anglo-Americans, one Louisiana Creole, seven 
Spaniards or Mexicans, and two negroes. Only 
eleven of the Anglo-Americans, besides Nolan, and 
the Creole and one Mexican took part in the fight- 
ing. Three of the eleven referred to escaped soon 
after the capture. All the other persons were 
tried, and the judge, in January, 1804, ordered 
their release ; but the general commandant of the 
Internal Provinces objected, and the matter was 
referred to the king. His reply, made in February, 
1807, was that one out of each five — to be chosen 
by lot — of those who had engaged in the fighting 
was to be hanged. He was providing for the ex- 
ecution of two, since ten of the class mentioned 
had been reported to him ; but meanwhile one of 
the ten had died, and the Mexican authorities de- 
cided that the execution of one would satisfy the 
decree. The lot fell on Ephraim Blackburn, who 
— strangely enough — was a Quaker, but was con- 
verted and baptized a Catholic before he died. He 
was hanged at Chihuahua, November 11, 1807. 
Spanish justice, whatever might be said of its 
quality, could scarcely be accused in this instance 
of undue haste. 



116 TEXAS 

The king's decree provided also that the remain- 
der of the prisoners should undergo hard labor for 
ten years, and they were sent in fulfillment of the 
sentence to various remote penal settlements. Only 
one of them appears in subsequent history, that 
one being Ellis Bean. 

No other Anglo-American expedition penetrated 
Texas for about a dozen years. During this inter- 
val the Spanish authorities in Mexico were thrown 
into a considerable fever of excitement by reports 
of the coming of Burr. It seems likely that he 
really meant to come ; but whether this was the 
port towards which his Buena Esjyeranza was 
directed or not, it suffered a premature shipwreck 
on the breakers of intrigue and Wilkinsonian 
treachery. There will be more to say of this ex- 
pedition in the next chapter, but for the present it 
may be dismissed. 

The next and most formidable of all the Anglo- 
American invasions was that led by the Mexican 
refugee, Bernardo Gutierrez, and an ex-lieutenant 
of the United States army, Augustus Magee. 
This took on the aspect of a genuine filibustering 
expedition. At almost every point of contact of 
United States and Spanish territory there was fric- 
tion which had been growing for many years, and 
Kentucky and Tennessee and the whole South- 
west were full of men ready and anxious for any 
desperate undertaking hostile to Spain. Many of 
them were specially interested in Texas, and they 
were generally willing to assist Mexico in striking 



ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 117 

a blow for independence. So when the favorable 
moment came it was not difficult to find among 
them volunteers to cross the border and mingle in 
the quarrels of a people whom they did not under- 
stand, and for whom they had little real sympathy. 

The opportunity followed the rising of Hidalgo. 
In 1811 Gutierrez had fled from Mexico with a 
commission from him as lieutenant-colonel in the 
insurgent army and envoy to the United States. 
At Washington he accomplished nothing, and he 
soon returned southwest as far as Natchitoches, 
which, now that the boundary had passed to the 
west side of Louisiana, was again opposite the 
most salient point of the Spanish frontier. Here 
he enlisted the cooperation of Magee, who resigned 
his commission in the United States army in order 
that he might be free to act. A nucleus for the 
invading force was organized from the adventurers 
of the Neutral Ground,^ who gathered at a con- 
venient rendezvous in their own territory to the 
number of one hundred and fifty-eight. At the 
head of this band, Gutierrez crossed the border in 
August and drove the Spanish troops from Nacog- 
doches. 

The Spanish had due notice of the organization 
and advance of the invaders, but they were not 
prepared to resist. The commandant at Nacog- 
doches reported that he had gone to the Sabine to 
meet Gutierrez, but had been outflanked and forced 
to retreat, and that in retiring he had detached at 
1 See p. 130. 



118 TEXAS 

the Attoyac, for the purpose of watching the en- 
emy, twenty men, who had been surprised and all 
captured but one. He said further that, when he 
gave notice of the approach of the enemy, the cit- 
izens showed no disposition to assist in repelling 
them. On the contrary, they seemed happy, while 
the troops showed neither spirit nor desire to fight, 
but became demoralized and fled precipitately to 
" Spanish Bluff," as the Anglo-Americans called 
the Spanish fort at the crossing of the Trinity, with- 
out even keeping together. The Anglo-Americans 
followed, and again the Spanish withdrew, abandon- 
ing by this retreat the whole of east Texas. 

During this time Magee had not been with Gu- 
tierrez, but had been busy recruiting and sending 
forward reenforcements. Before leaving Nacog- 
doches, the force numbered near five hundred, and 
at Spanish Bluff it had risen to about eight hun- 
dred. At this point an organization was effected. 
Gutierrez, as the proper representative of the Mexi- 
can revolutionists, whom the invaders were to rally 
and from whom they expected to gather strength 
for their purposes, was made commander-in-chief, 
with Magee, who was the real leader, nominally 
second in rank. Under him were five able sub- 
ordinates : Major Kemper, and Captains Lockett, 
Perry, Ross, and Gaines. 

In October the filibusters pushed on to La 
Bahia, which was garrisoned by Salcedo, the gov- 
ernor of Texas, with fifteen hundred men. He 
marched out with nearly all his force to meet the 



ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 119 

enemy at the Guadalupe River, but they crossed 
the river at another point and easily captured La 
Bahia, securing much booty. There they were be- 
sieged by Salcedo for about four months. In the 
course of the siege he suffered great losses, but 
accomplished nothing ; and early in 1813 he gave 
it up and allowed the Anglo-Americans and their 
auxiliaries to move on towards Bejar. But while 
they were at La Bahia, Magee, who had been di- 
recting their operations, died, — one story intimates 
by his own hand, — and his functions devolved on 
Kemper. Before the march towards B^jar began, 
several hundred additional men, partly recruits 
from Nacogdoches and partly Indian allies, were 
added to the army. 

In March the hostile forces met near San An- 
tonio, in the battle of Rosillo, and the Spanish, 
whose numbers have been variously estimated at 
from nine hundred to twenty-five hundred, were 
beaten with great loss. Two days later the city 
was surrendered, and every man of the victors had 
something in the way of spoils. 

Then followed one of those horrible events that 
have been all too common in the wars fought by 
Indians or by the Spanish. The Anglo-Americans 
must be relieved of any imputation of complicity, 
active or passive, in the affair, and thus of all 
responsibility for it except that which comes of 
their entering such an alliance. Gutierrez, who 
had been in nominal command of the invading 
army but without any real authority till it entered 



120 TEXAS 

B(3Jar, now that lie was on his native heath began 
to take much u^jon himself. Stating to the army 
that he thought it safest to send Salcedo and his 
staff to New Orleans till the war was over, he 
started them to Matagorda Bay under a guard 
commanded by one Captain Delgado ; but as soon 
as the party was well out of sight of San Antonio 
this Mexican brute and his men relieved them- 
selves of the necessity for the tiresome trip by 
beheading their helpless prisoners, to the number 
of fourteen, with their dull camp-knives. The 
Anglo-American officers had Delgado arrested and 
tried for the murder, but he threw the responsibil- 
ity on Gutierrez, who was thereupon deposed.^ The 
best of these men, who had been brought to Texas 
by their own reckless love of adventure and will- 
ingness to help an enslaved people, now began to 
understand the possibilities of their enterprise, and 
refused to follow it any farther. Sick of the busi- 
ness, many of them, including Kemper, Lockett, 
and Ross, returned to the States, leaving it to be 
pursued to the end by such of their countiymen as 
had the stomach for it. 

The end soon came. In June the insurgents 
annihilated one army of more than fifteen hundred 
men that had been sent against them ; but in July, 
when their numbers had grown to upwards of three 
thousand, including about eight hundred and fifty 

^ Delgado soug-ht. to excuse liis deed by claiming' that it was in 
reprisal for the unjustifiable and inhuman execution of his father 
by Salcedo, and that it was done by permission of Gutierrez. 



ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 121 

Anglo-Americans, they were disastrously beaten 
by a force of about two thousand royalists. This, 
however, was only after a desperate battle of four 
hours in which the Mexican republicans ran away 
at the outset, leaving the Anglo-Americans and 
Indians to fight alone. Only ninety-three of the 
contingent from the United States got back to 
Natchitoches. 

The subsequent conduct of the royalists, or 
gacTiupines^ as the native Mexicans contemptu- 
ously called them, was a fit sequel to the murder of 
Salcedo and his companions. In winding up the 
battle they slaughtered the fugitives and the cap- 
tured. At San Antonio they repeated the Black 
Hole horror by imprisoning, one August night, 
three hundred men in a single house, so closely 
that eighteen of them died from suffocation ; and 
they imprisoned also five hundred women belong- 
ing to rej)ublican households, whom they forced to 
cook for them. Finally a body of them swept east- 
ward to Nacogdoches, murdering, plundering, and 
destroying. After a few days there was little left 
to show for the feeble colonizing work of a century. 
The settlement at Spanish Bluff was entirely de- 
stroyed. The republicans of Nacogdoches took 
refuge in Louisiana. How many of them returned, 
and when, is not yet shown ; but the town could 
hardly have escaped at least temporary depopula- 
tion. 

The final warlike invasion of Texas by Anglo- 
Americans was that led by James Long, a merchant 



122 TEXAS 

of Natchez, who had been an officer in the United 
States army, and had married a niece of General 
Wilkinson. The expedition was organized at 
Natchez, and seems to have been inspired by a 
feeling of disappointment at the surrender in 1819 
by the United States government of its claims to 
Texas. It was the outcome of a public meeting at 
which a company of volunteei'S for the enterprise 
was raised, the command being first declined by 
General Adair of Kentucky and then accepted by 
Long. While the intention of its promoters was 
to secure, so far as it could be made available, the 
help of the Mexican republicans in Texas, they 
perhaps thought less of interfei'ing in the national 
affairs of Mexico than Magee and his followers 
had planned, and meant to confine their attention 
more exclusively to eastern Texas. 

After some perfunctory efforts by the authorities 
to prevent the departure of Long's men, they left 
Natchez in June, 1819, seventy-five strong. By 
the time they reached Nacogdoches the force had 
grown to three hundred. There they organized a 
provisional government headed by a council, of 
which Gutierrez was a member, and it declared 
Texas to be an independent republic. It organized 
a sort of administrative system, the principal fea- 
ture of which was an arrangement to dispose of the 
public lands in such a way as to raise revenue and 
attract immigrants. It is probable that this feature 
of their plan lay nearer the heart of it, and throws 
more light on their motives than any other. When 



ANGLO-AMERICAN INVASIONS 123 

this had been done, five of the leaders were sent 
out with small detachments to establish themselves 
at different points along the Trinity and Brazos. 

The new republic was but short-lived. Long 
went to Galveston Island to enlist the cooperation 
of Lafitte, who had headquarters there at the time ; 
but in this he failed, and while he was gone the 
Spanish troops broke up his posts and captured or 
scattered his men. He escaped to Louisiana and, 
after carrying his family to Natchitoches, went to 
Bolivar Point, on the Texas coast, where he estab- 
lished the remnant of his men in a fort, pending 
the renewal of operations. The opportunity for 
this came with the new revolutionary outbreak of 
1821. Long had meanwhile formed a connection 
with the Mexican Liberal leaders, Trespalacios and 
Milam, and his next thrust was at the heart of 
Texas. He penetrated to La Bahia, which he cap- 
tured on October 4, 1821 ; but he was soon com- 
pelled to surrender with a part of his men. The 
complexion of their raid as undertaken in support 
of the risings against Spain gave them favor with 
the triumphant revolutionists, and they were well 
treated. Soon afterwards, however, Long was, for 
some reason never yet made quite clear, shot and 
killed by a Mexican soldier. After having been 
detained for some time in the city of Mexico, his 
men were set at liberty through the good offices of 
the United States government, exercised through 
its agent Poinsett. 

This was the last of the filibustering invasions. 



124 TEXAS 

The main reason for them disappeared when it be- 
came possible to enter Texas peaceably. But the 
province was left in a sad way. To the eastward 
of San Antonio nearly all signs of civilization that 
remained after the destructive work of 1813 were 
now swept away. All the intruders were driven 
out, and the country was laid waste. Even at San 
Antonio it became very difficult to obtain supplies. 
What was left of Nacogdoches by the breaking up 
of Long's republic was almost swept away by the 
revolution of 1821. A glimpse of it in that year 
shows that the Mexican settlers had disappeared — 
doubtless being simply scattered to less dangerous 
localities — and the population consisted of only a 
handful of American squatters, who had perhaps 
filtered in from the Neutral Ground.^ An estimate 
in 1820 puts the whole population of the province, 
exclusive of Indians, at not more than four thou- 
sand. Such was the miserable witness of the craft 
of Saint-Denis, the patriotic work of Aguayo, the 
brave and patient self-sacrifice of the missionaries, 
and the vast expenditure of treasure and blood in 
the vain effort to plant Spanish civilization in Texas. 
1 See p. 130. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE FKINGES OF TEXAS DURING THE DECAY OP 
SPANISH RULE 

During the first two decades of the nineteenth 
century, while Spain was making her last desperate 
efforts to retain her hold in America, and the in- 
vaders from beyond the Sabine were engaged in the 
futile endeavors that have been described to over- 
throw the Spanish dominion in Texas, the borders 
of the province on three sides were in a constant 
state of irritation. To the west were the peren- 
nially troublesome Apaches and Comanches ; to the 
northeast were the hardly less annoying adven- 
turers of the Neutral Ground ; while along the coast 
pirates and intruders of various kinds found their 
way in without opposition, or fixed themselves and 
remained at will. 

Of the Indian depredations of this period there 
has been written no systematic account. The mate- 
rials for it will no doubt be found in the Bexar 
Archives, now in possession of the University of 
Texas, when they are properly explored ; but 
this will probably be the work of many years. 
Enough is known, however, to warrant the state- 
ment that the Apaches and Comanches were the 



126 TEXAS 

scourge of the western frontier under both Span- 
ish and Mexican rule. The following statement 
by the historian Kennedy, resting mainly on the 
authority of Edward's " History of Texas," will 
serve as a picture of conditions in that quarter, 
during the time referred to : — 

In the destruction of the Missions, the Comanches 
were the principal agents. Encouraged by the passive 
submission of the Mexicans of mixed blood, they carried 
their insolence so far as to ride into Bexar, and alight 
in the public square, leaving their horses to be caught 
and pastured by the obsequious soldiers of the garrison, 
on pain of chastisement. To raise a contribution, they 
would enter the town with a drove of Mexican horses, 
stolen by themselves, and, under pretense of having res- 
cued the Cahallada from hostile Indians, would exact 
a reward for their honesty. They openly carried off 
herds of cattle and horses from the settlements east of 
the Rio Grande, sparing the lives of the herdsmen, not 
from motives of humanity, but because they deemed it 
impolitic to kill those who were so useful in raising 
horses and mules for the benefit of the Comanches. 

The bad condition of the northeastern frontier in 
the latter years of the Spanish domination was due 
to a compromise made in fixing a provisional bound- 
ary line between Louisiana and Texas. The reader 
will recall previous disputes over this line. In the 
investigations in the Spanish courts which took 
place during the trial of Sandoval in 1738, conclu- 
sions were reached which were in harmony with the 
French claim that the line was properly at Arroyo 



THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 127 

Hondo, a tributary of Red River crossing the road 
from Natchitoches to Adaes slightly east of the 
middle point. It will be remembered that there 
was little trouble with the French about this border. 
In 1762, when western Louisiana passed to Spain, 
it seemed as if the importance of the limit was for- 
ever gone ; but the retrocession of that province to 
France in 1800, and its sale to the United States 
in 1803, brought the old question to new life. 

The exchange of neighbors was in no wise to the 
advantage of Spain. It is true that under Napoleon 
France might have proved worse than the United 
States ; for the records show that when he sold 
Louisiana he had already taken steps to appropri- 
ate Texas. But the danger lying in that quarter 
was never realized. The French claims passed 
with Louisiana to its new possessors, and Napoleon 
turned his attention elsewhere. 

An American humorist once delivered himself of 
a bit of wisdom in terms somewhat like this : ' If 
you wish a mule to stay in a field, put him in the 
one next to it.' The Anglo-American mule was 
now in the next field. Taking a large backward 
view from the present, one feels impressed that it 
was an unnecessary piece of by-play to dispute over 
the location of a fence that stood so little in the 
way, but it was in the usual line of detail in such 
cases. 

The United States, having secured Louisiana, at 
once set up large claims in Texas. The main ob- 
ject, however, in doing so appears to have been to 



128 TEXAS 

gain advantage in bargaining for the Floridas, 
which were then desired much more anxiously than 
the southwestern territory. In April, 1804, Charles 
Pinckney, minister to Spain, and IMonroe, envoy 
extraordinary, were instructed to offer the Spanish 
government a proposition which involved the re- 
cognition of the country between the Sabine and the 
Colorado as a neutral ground. In July the instruc- 
tions were so modified that the neutral ground was 
to be located, if possible, between the Colorado and 
the Rio Grande. The aggressiveness manifested in 
these propositions and the continued drifting into 
Texas of intruders from the United States alarmed 
the Spanish, and led to some display of defensive 
energy. In addition to a considerable body of col- 
onists that were sent in at the time, a large number 
of troops were dispatched to Texas. At the be- 
ginning of 1806 there were about fifteen hundred 
soldiers in the province. 

The strengthening of the Spanish forces in Texas 
led the United States to take iDrecautionary mea- 
sures against their use east of the Sabine. The 
officer in charge at Natchitoches was instructed to 
see that they did not cross, and he thereupon asked 
the commandant at Nacogdoches for assurance that 
they would not, but was refused. Meanwhile En- 
sign Gonzales, who seems to have been no more 
successful as a frontier defender than his namesake 
of seventy years before, had been sent with twenty 
men to occupy Adaes and had been expelled by a 
detachment of sixty sent from Natchitoches. 



THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 129 

This insult to Spain and rumors of Burr's con- 
templated invasion of Mexico drew the Spanish 
troops to the frontier. In the summer of 1806 
some thirteen hundred of them crossed the Sabine 
and advanced to near Natchitoches. Colonel Gush- 
ing, then commanding at that post, demanded 
their withdrawal ; but Herrera, the Spanish general, 
replied that he was there under orders to defend 
the territory for the king. Governor Claiborne of 
Louisiana and General Wilkinson, commander-in- 
chief of the United States army, went to Natchi- 
toches ; the troops there were reenforced ; and the 
demand for the withdrawal of the Spanish was 
emphatically repeated in a letter from Wilkinson 
to Governor Cordero of Texas, who was at Nacog- 
doches, and who referred the letter to General 
Commandant Salcedo at Chihuahua. Pending an 
answer, for some reason Herrera fell back to the 
west side of the Sabine. Wilkinson followed him, 
and the two armies were soon face to face on oppo- 
site banks of the river. But the menace in the 
situation was not realized. The Burr conspiracy, 
of whose progress Wilkinson was well informed, 
was then rapidly approaching its denouement, and 
the general seems to have concluded that he must 
go to Natchez to make a parade of thwarting the 
man with whom he had been in collusion. For this 
purpose he patched up a hurried agreement relative 
to the boundary, to which Herrera was induced to 
agree, no doubt by picturing to him the necessity 
for checking Burr in the interests of Mexico. Both 



130 TEXAS 

generals assumed authority in the case which their 
respective governments under ordinary circum- 
stances would never have conceded ; but the stress 
of the moment was such that their work was allowed 
to stand, and the miserable condition in which they 
left the border continued for thirteen years. 

The treaty agreed to by Wilkinson and Herrera 
provided that the neutral ground, which played so 
important a part in the earlier negotiations of the 
United States with Spain, and which was proposed 
first for the eastern half of Texas and then for the 
western half, including everything to the Rio 
Grande, should lie between the Sabine and the 
Arroyo Hondo, the original western limit of the 
French actual occupation. 

Thus shrunken in its extent and moved far to 
the east from where the United States had last 
expressed a willingness to locate it, the Neutral 
Ground became fixed in position and definite in its 
limits on the east and west, but impossible to define 
on the north or south. Neither of the nations be- 
tween whose territories it stood exercised direct 
jurisdiction over it, and it became the refuge of 
all sorts of lawless and desperate men. They 
united themselves in a kind of buccaneer organiza- 
tion and found employment in robbing traders. 
The authorities on both sides took measures against 
them ; they were tortured and driven off and had 
their houses burned ; but nothing could exterminate 
them. Finally, however, in the boundary read- 
justment accompanying the Florida purchase in 



THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 131 

1819, the Neutral Ground fell within the limits of 
Louisiana and disappeared, and with it the band of 
robbers it had sheltered. 

Subsequent to the Gutierrez-Magee expedition, 
the Gulf coast became hardly less troublesome than 
the eastern border. It was almost an ideal place 
for pirates, with its long, bare islands, its river 
mouths so difficult of access, and its dangerous, low- 
lying shore. For the filibuster, if he could secure 
the services of a pilot that knew how to make land 
safely, it was in some respects a better way in than 
the Old San Antonio Road from Natchitoches, 
especially for him whose plans went beyond the 
revolutionizing of eastern Texas and contemplated 
beginning with a blow at San Antonio or some still 
more southerly Mexican stronghold. Naturally 
enough, therefore, as the Gulf commerce grew and 
the revolutionary movement in Mexico went on in 
its fitful and uncertain course, the coast, like the 
Neutral Ground, attracted a swarm of adventurers. 

Of this motley crowd, gathered from all nations, 
Galveston Island, opposite the bay at the mouth of 
the Trinity, became the special rendezvous. This 
locality suited their purpose much better, doubtless, 
than any in the neighborhood of Espiritu Santo 
Bay, the old Spanish harbor, which was near the 
post of La Bahia, with San Antonio not very far 
away, and thus too much exposed to attack ; while 
Galveston Bay was as good a harbor, and was not 
in easy striking distance of any Spanish presidio. 
The occupation of the island began in 1816, when 



132 TEXAS 

Louis de Aury, acting in conjunction with the Mex- 
ican insurgents, set up an organized government 
there, with the usual departments, representing 
the republicans. This establishment was intended 
to promote the revolution in Mexico, especially by 
plundering Spanish commerce. Among the crowd 
attracted thither was Caj)tain Perry, who was among 
the few that escaped after the defeat of the revolu- 
tionists at San Antonio in 1813, and who brought 
one hundred men. In a short time the force on the 
island swelled to four hundred — twice as many as 
the aggregate of Spanish troops in Texas. The 
principal occupations of this parasitic crowd were — 
to put it plainly — slave trading and piracy, and it 
is said that many citizens of the United States sent 
vessels to share as privateers in the golden harvest. 
In November, 1816, came to the island General 
Javier Mina, a Spaniard who had distinguished 
himself as a guerrilla chief during the Peninsular 
War, with a force of more than two hundred men 
and with magnificent plans for a filibustering ex- 
pedition into the interior of Mexico. He gained 
Perry over to his views, and there was a contest for 
the supremacy in which serious results, and perhaps 
the overthrow of the new government, were pre- 
vented only by the conciliatory policy of Aury. In 
April, 1817, the whole party, after destroying the 
" government buildings " on the island, embarked 
for the invasion ; but Aury, who had no heart for 
the enterprise, after landing Mina and Perry at 
Soto la Marina in Tamaulipas, sailed away and left 



THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 133 

them to carry it out alone. It proved a disastrous 
failure. Perry soon detached himself with fifty 
men and made his way back to La Bahia in Texas. 
Drawn away from an attack on the presidio by a 
superior force of royalists sent to intercept his party, 
he avoided capture and ended his share in a battle 
which the failure of his ammunition was turning 
against him by shootiug himself through the head. 
Mina penetrated far into the interior of Mexico and 
sustained himself for some time in a brilliant cam- 
paign, but was finally captured by the Spanish 
troops and shot by vice-regal orders. 

After leaving Mina at Soto, Aury first stopped 
for a short time near the old Spanish harbor, 
Espfritu Santo, and then returned to Galveston 
Island. But he found it in possession of Lafitte ; 
so he left to share in an attack on the Floridas, 
taking what remained of his government with him. 

Jean Lafitte simply stepped into Aury's place 
and adopted his methods, but with more selfish 
purposes of his own. While he may not have been 
exactly bred to the art of piracy, he had served a 
long apprenticeship therein, and had now attained 
the experience and skill of a past master. He had 
begun his work in the Gulf about 1810 at the island 
of Barataria on the coast west of the mouth of the 
Mississippi, where the pirates driven from the West 
Indies by the English had taken refuge. They are 
said to have worked in collusion with merchants in 
New Orleans. Jean Lafitte and his brother had 
been at first agents in disposing of spoils, which by 



134 TEXAS 

and by they had taken the lead in gathering. The 
Baratarians had become so troublesome that the 
United States government had been forced to break 
up their establishment in September, 1814. Just 
before this Lafitte had refused the offer of a cap- 
taincy in the British navy, and had then tendered 
his services to the governor of Louisiana. In De- 
cember following he and his men had been received 
into Jackson's army, and immediately afterwards 
they had played an effective part in the battle of 
New Orleans. The movements of Lafitte during 
the next two years have not been traced ; but in 
April, 1817, he had taken advantage of Aury's 
abandonment of Galveston Island to establish him- 
self there. 

There he remained about four years. He claimed 
that it was only Spanish vessels he attacked ; and it 
is said that he justified himself by the statement that 
outrages he had once suffered from a Spanish sea 
captain had led him to declare eternal war on Spain. 
The story may be true, but his men at least showed 
a degree of impartiality in their piratical enterprise. 
It was, in fact, their willingness to make prizes of 
United States vessels as well as others that has- 
tened their downfall. 

Lafitte, like Aury, organized a government with 
departments having heads, at any rate, even if not 
a very full corjjs of clerks. For convenience' sake 
in preying upon Spanish commerce, they swore al- 
legiance to the then moribund republican govern- 
ment of Mexico, but with no intention of seeking 



THE FRINGES OF TEXAS 135 

to galvanize it into new life. There was at least a 
sense in which Lafitte gave strict attention to his 
own business, and he soon had round him again all 
that could come of the thousand men who had been 
dispersed from Barataria, with good substitutes for 
such of them as were missing. He built fortifica- 
tions on the site of the present city of Galveston, 
and a flourishing town known as Campeachy grew 
round them, much to the detriment of the commerce 
of the Gulf. But in 1821, after certain attacks on 
United States ships had drawn the attention of the 
authorities at Washington to his work, they sent 
an expedition to the island with orders to break up 
the pirates' nest. Lafitte made no resistance, but 
accepted the orders and abandoned the place to a 
season of rest, after which it was destined for the 
uses of a new civilization. 

One other ephemeral coast enterprise of this 
period remains to be noticed. It was led by Gen- 
erals Lallemand and Rigault, who had served in 
the armies of Napoleon. They had come with a 
French colony to the United States, and in March, 

1817, they received a grant of land in Alabama. 
The settlement did not prosper there, and they con- 
ceived the plan of moving to Texas. In March, 

1818, after sending to the Spanish government a 
rather impudent request for permission, to which 
no attention was paid, Lallemand sailed from New 
Orleans to Texas with one hundred and twenty 
colonists. He established his settlement on Trinity 
River some twelve miles inland, giving it the restful 



136 . TEXAS 

name of Champ d'Asile. Shortly after their arri- 
val the intruders issued a brave pronunciamento, in 
which they asserted their natural right to the un- 
used land, and their intention to hold it by force if 
they should be attacked ; but as soon as the Spanish 
came to oust them they retired to Galveston without 
striking a blow. Possibly they had their revenge 
on the Spaniard from the decks of Lafitte's vessels, 
but this is only a conjecture. 



CHAPTER XIII 
Austin's colony 

In modern times men are beginning to under- 
stand better than formerly the significance of the 
function of the pioneer, and to give him a higher 
degree of credit. The military hero, and especially 
he that takes the lead in moments of national peril, 
playing his more dramatic part with the eyes of his 
countrymen fixed upon him, will never fail of his 
due meed of glory ; but he that plants in the wil- 
derness, " in labours more abundant " and " in 
deaths oft," the germ of a new civilization, is but 
rarely remembered as he should be. Others enter 
into his work and reap where he has sown with little 
thought of what they owe him for their opportunity, 
and the contemporaneous historian, voicing the im- 
mature judgment of his time, too often gives him 
but an obscure place in its annals. 

This has been in some degree true of the Austins, 
father and son. It is only of late that the world, 
with the results before its eyes, has begun to realize 
what they accomplished. If they themselves, upon 
the threshold of their undertaking, could have 
looked forward to the revolution of 1836, annexa- 
tion, the Mexican war, the acquisitions made by 



138 TEXAS 

the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the marvel- 
ous development of Texas and California, they must 
have been staggered by the consequences that were 
to flow from their enterprise. Yet this chain of 
events has followed, "as the night the day," the 
work planned and begun by Moses Austin and car- 
ried out by his son Stephen. 

Moses Austin was a native of Durham, Conn. 
He was trained for the mercantile profession and 
became a partner in a large Philadelphia import- 
ing house. In that city be married Miss Maria 
Brown of Morris County, N. J. Soon afterwards 
his firm established a branch in Richmond, Va., and 
he moved thither. In a few years he moved again, 
this time to Wythe County, in southwestern Vir- 
ginia, where he became the manager of some lead 
mines belonging to his company. It is said that he 
established at the mines and in Richmond the first 
manufactory of shot and sheet lead in the United 
States, and that a brother of his sent out the first 
sealing vessel that ever visited the northwestern 
coast of America and went thence to India. 

The mines were not productive according to his 
expectations ; and having heard favorable reports 
from " Upper Louisiana," or specifically the coun- 
try that is now known as Missouri, he set out in 
1796 on a prospecting trip to that section. Travel- 
ing over the " Wilderness Road " from Cumberland 

o 

Gap northwestwardly across Kentucky to Louis- 
ville, he next turned west to make his way to Kas- 
kaskia, which was then the most important town on 



AUSTIN'S COLONY 139 

the east side of the upper Mississippi. Vincennes 
was the only settlement lying on his route. For 
nearly a week his party was lost in the snow-covered 
waste between that place and the Mississippi ; but 
finally, just before being driven to the extremity of 
eating their horses, they reached a small village 
near the river. 

The outcome of this visit to the West was an- 
other change of residence. Austin obtained a 
grant of land, with some lead mines thereon, in 
what is now Washington County, Missouri. There 
he built up a pioneer settlement, which, in spite 
of attacks from the Indians, grew and flourished. 
When he went into the new country he had to 
sacrifice a prejudice common to Anglo-Americans 
in consenting to become a Spanish citizen ; but it 
was not long until, with no change of residence 
this time, he found himself again settled in the 
United States. The Louisiana Purchase had ex- 
tended the western frontier of the North American 
Republic to the Rockies. But while the change 
must have been gratifying to him personally, it 
was one that his colony had no share in effecting. 
The settlement seems to have " growed," like 
Topsy, with perhaps as little consciousness of the 
weight of Spanish authority before the change 
of government as after. Austin gave attention to 
his mining business, and prospered to the point of 
growing rich ; but the failure of the Bank of St. 
Louis, in which he was a large stockholder, swept 
away his fortune, and he was ready for a new ven- 
ture. 



140 TEXAS 

The opportunity came, as it seemed to him, with 
the treaty of 1819, which left Texas in the hands 
of Spain and gave validity to Spanish grants of 
land that might be made within the limits of that 
province. He proposed to his son Stephen, then 
twenty-six years of age, the establishment of a 
colony in Texas, and after mature deliberation 
they undertook it. In April, 1819, to facilitate the 
plan, Stephen went south to establish a farm at 
Long Prairie on Red River that might serve as a 
basis for colonizing operations, but for some reason 
the farm was soon abandoned. Most of the years 
1819 and 1820 he spent in Arkansas Territory, 
of which he was appointed circuit judge. During 
his stay in the Territory he located a grant of land, 
on which his brother-in-law, James Bryan, subse- 
quently laid off the town of Little Rock. In the 
summer of 1820 he met Moses Austin at Little 
Rock, and it was agreed that the father should go 
to San Antonio to open the way for the proposed 
colony, while the son should go to New Orleans to 
gather immigrants. 

Accordingly in the fall of 1820 Moses Austin 
made on horseback the tiresome journey of more 
than eight hundred miles from the Missouri settle- 
ment to San Antonio, through an almost totally 
uninhabited wilderness. It seemed at first as if 
his patience and trouble must go for nought. Gov- 
ernor Martinez of Texas belonged to the class of 
native Spaniards who were quite unpopular in 
Mexico, and he was a personal enemy of General 



AUSTIN'S COLONY 141 

Commandant Arredondo, who he feared would 
take advantage of any misstep of his to ruin him. 
This official had given him instructions to keep out 
all foreigners, and especially Anglo-Americans, 
He therefore refused to listen to Austin or to go 
into the question of his having previously been a 
Spanish citizen, and angrily ordered him to leave 
the province at once. There* was nothing to be 
done but to obey. Austin was about to start back, 
but he chanced to meet just then the Baron de 
Bastrop, a German in the Spanish service, whom 
he had known before, and who now interposed in 
his behalf. The order for immediate departure 
was suspended, the colonization scheme was ex- 
jjlained to the governor, and he and the ayunta- 
miento of San Antonio joined in approving the 
petition of Austin to the authorities of the Eastern 
Internal Provinces to be allowed to bring into 
Texas three hundred settlers from the United 
States. 

Before the answer could reach San Antonio, 
Austin left for home. In crossing Texas to Natchi- 
toches, whence he traveled by water to Missouri, 
he suffered such hardships that his health was per- 
manently impaired ; and in the summer following 
his retui'n he died, soon after learning that his 
petition had been granted. 

The work left incomplete by Moses Austin now 
fell to Stephen, who prosecuted it under many 
difficulties and discouragements, but with tireless 
energy and unfaltering courage. He was well 



142 TEXAS 

fitted for it, both by nature and by training. The 
qualifications and instincts of the pioneer he had 
inherited from his father ; while the large respon- 
sibilities previously laid upon him and the share 
he had already taken in this enterprise constituted 
excellent special preparation for the duty of push- 
ing it to execution. From 1813, when he had but 
barely attained the estate of manhood, until 1819, 
he had been a member of the territorial legislature 
of Missouri. Then he had gone to Arkansas to 
assist in making arrangements to plant the Texas 
colony, and in the interval while the plans were 
being matured he had, as already stated, served as 
territorial circuit judge. While his father was 
busy with the task of getting the grant from the 
Mexican authorities, he was in New Orleans mak- 
ing arrangements to collect and send on the party 
of immigrants. There he succeeded in obtaining 
the cooi3eration of Joseph Hawkins, a prominent 
lawyer of the city. 

When Austin heard that the petition to estab- 
lish the colony had been granted and that Spanish 
commissioners had come to Nacogdoches with the 
news, he decided to proceed thither himself. In 
June, 1821, he set out from New Orleans with two 
or three companions, and at Natchitoches he found 
Commissioners Erasmo Seguin and Juan Martin 
Veramendi, with several other Spaniards, waiting 
for his father, who — as neither he nor the com- 
missioners then knew — had died about ten days 
before. After remaining a few days in Natchi- 



AUSTIN'S COLONY 143 

toches, he started to enter Texas with a party of 
nearly a dozen men. A report of the death of his 
father overtook him just before he reached the 
Sabine and caused him to return to Natchitoches 
to obtain more certain information ; but having 
stopped there just long enough to ascertain that the 
letters he expected had been forwarded, he followed 
on after the party he had left and soon overtook it. 
Then he learned that the report was undoubtedly 
true. Nevertheless he pushed on with the party 
to Nacogdoches and thence to San Antonio, where 
he arrived August 12, just in time to witness the 
rejoicing occasioned by the news of the independ- 
ence of Mexico. 

Austin carried the news of his father's death at 
once to Governor Martinez and told him that he 
wished to be recognized as the empresario (con- 
tractor) himself and to carry out the contract. 
Martinez extended to him the desired recognition 
and gave him permission to explore the country 
along the Colorado and select such a location for 
his colony as he might think best. At the request 
of the governor, Austin furnished, in writing, a 
sketch of his plan, according to which each head 
of a family was to have six hundred and forty 
acres for himself, besides three hundred and twenty 
for his wife, one hundred and sixty for each child, 
and eighty for each slave. Single men twenty-one 
years of age were to have six hundred and forty 
acres each. Martinez gave him authority to pro- 
mise land to his colonists in this proportion, and to 



144 TEXAS 

take charge of the local government of the colony 
till it should be otherwise provided for. Austin 
then looked over the country and selected a loca- 
tion for his settlers along the lower course of the 
Brazos and the Colorado rivers. 

He next addressed himself energetically to the 
task of putting the colony on the ground. On his 
return to Louisiana he advertised the facts already 
stated, with the addition that each settler would be 
required to pay the empresario twelve and a half 
cents jjer acre for his land. The object of this was 
to create a fund to be used in j)aying the expenses 
of the enterprise, and to some extent in remuner- 
ating Austin himself for his services in connection 
therewith. The plan of levying this contribution 
was explained to Martinez beforehand, and he 
stated that he saw nothing improper in it if dis- 
tinct notice of it were given to every colonist pre- 
vious to his immigration, but he would not venture 
an opinion as to how the superior authorities might 
view the matter. 

The first party of settlers was conducted by 
Austin to the lower Brazos in December, 1821. 
They went in by the overland route. Before leav- 
ing New Orleans he had arranged for the send- 
ing of supplies and additional immigrants by a 
schooner, the Lively, which he was to meet at the 
mouth of the Colorado. The vessel came, but the 
landing was made at the mouth of the Brazos. This 
was possibly because of a mistake as to the identity 
of the river. The Lively passed on along the coast, 



AUSTIN'S COLONY 145 

and probably reached the Colorado, but not till 
Austin had grown weary of waiting and had left 
the appointed rendezvous. The same vessel brought 
a second cargo to Texas in 1822 and was wrecked 
on the coast. In the fall of that year one shipload 
of supplies was landed at the mouth of the Colo- 
rado, but it was destroyed by the Karankawa In- 
dians, who added to their mischief the slaughter of 
four men. The immigrants brought by the Lively 
on her first voyage moved up the Brazos and formed 
a settlement, but in the course of the next year 
nearly all of them returned to the United States. 

The new settlers had many sufferings and dan- 
gers to undergo, especially in the first two years. 
The failure of supplies and the bad quality of the 
game they killed — the mast having failed — put 
them to great extremity; and the outrages of the 
Indians, whom they were then too weak to punish 
or to overawe, made their life almost a burden. 

It was particularly unfortunate that Austin had 
to leave the colony for more than a year just at 
this, the most trying, period of its existence. 
When he went to San Antonio in March, 1822, to 
rejDort to the governor, he was informed that he 
must go to Mexico to get his grant confirmed and 
receive instructions concerning the colony. There 
was nothing to be done but go, so he left Josiah H. 
Bell in charge of the settlement, and set out on his 
ride of twelve hundred miles through a country in 
which law and order were at that time hardly 
known. From Monterey to the city of Mexico he 



146 TEXAS 

had but one companion. By good fortune he got 
through safely. 

It was better fortune still that enabled him, dur- 
ing the most turbulent year of the revolution, when 
confusion reigned supreme in Mexico and no man 
knew what a day would bring forth, to cany the 
business on which he was bent to a satisfactory con- 
elusion. It was then that his fitness for the task 
he had undertaken became especially apparent. 
When the circumstances required delay he waited 
patiently, but when opportunity came he worked 
with all his energy. Under the provisional regency 
that ruled in the period immediately succeeding in- 
dependence, his case was referred to the Mexican 
congress, and a general colonization law was under 
discussion in that body, when it was superseded by a 
junta instituyente or legislative committee, selected 
from the members of the congress by the emperor 
Iturbide. This committee took up the subject and 
passed a general colonization law, which was pro- 
mulgated in January, 1823. Austin had sought to 
have his own colony dealt with by special legis- 
lation ; but various persons, among them General 
Wilkinson and Hayden Edwards, on whom we 
shall come again by and by, wei-e then in the city 
soliciting grants of the same nature, and for this 
reason the congress had insisted on a general law. 

Shortly after the passage of the law, Austin 
obtained, especially through the favor of the deputy 
minister of foreign and internal affairs, Andreas 
Quintana, an imperial decree confirming his grant. 



AUSTIN'S COLONY 147 

He was just on the point of starting back to Texas 
in March, with his hard-won prize, when another 
turn of the revolutionary wheel flung Iturbide from 
his seat, and everything had to be done over again. 
The matter was again referred to congress, which 
in April suspended the general law, but passed 
Austin's case on to the executive triumvirate then 
at the head of the government, and two or three 
days later the grant was again confirmed. Thus it 
will be seen that Austin finally gained his point in 
obtaining his grant by special act and not by virtue 
of any general law. But when the grant was 
shaped by the decree issued just previous to the 
fall of Iturbide, it had been made to conform to 
the general law then in force. This law provided 
that each colonist who was to engage in agriculture 
should have a labor, or somewhat less than two 
hundred acres, and each who was to follow stock- 
raising should have a sitio, or square league, con- 
taining about forty -four hundred acres ; while those 
who meant to do both might have the aggregate 
allotment of a sitio and labor. The empresario 
was to have fifteen sitios and two labors for each 
two hundred families he should introduce. It is 
rather amusing to observe that the grant approved 
in conformity with the law first denies the author- 
ity of Austin to offer immigrants the amounts 
agreed upon with Governor Martinez in 1821, and 
then proceeds to apportion to each colonist what 
must have averaged more than twice as much. 
A few provisions of the grant to Austin deserve 



148 TEXAS 

special attention. The colonists were to furnish 
evidence that they were Roman Catholic, — or 
should agree to become such, — and that they were 
of steady habits. Much has been made by some 
of the failure to conform to the spirit of this pro- 
vision as affecting Austin's integrity ; but it in- 
volved no false certificate or misrepresentation on 
his part, though the immigrants themselves cared 
little for the deceit they practiced. The writer has 
been able to find no evidence to support the charge 
that Moses Austin represented himself in Mexico 
" as the leader of a company of Roman Catholics 
who had suffered persecution in the United States, 
for their religion's sake." ^ The actual working of 
the clause requiring the colonists to be Catholics 
can hardly have been misunderstood on either side. 
They seem to have compromised the matter by giv- 
ing up their own Protestant practices for a time, 
and by allowing the ministrations of the jolly Irish 
priest who went his rounds among them to cele- 
brate marriages, christenings, etc. If any one is 
to be blamed, a heavy share must fall on the zeal- 
ous ministers who, after a time, began to organize 
Protestant worship in the colony. As to Stephen 
Austin himself, what he suffered later in trying to 
hold his wayward settlers true to their obligations 
to the government from which their privileges were 
obtained is a sufficient answer to any charge touch- 
ing his own good faith. 

^ See Jay's Review of the Mexican War, 11 ; Burgess's Tiie 
Middle Period, 291. 



AUSTIN'S COLONY 149 

The final decree confirming the grant gave Austin 
authority, under direct responsibility to the gov- 
ernor of Texas, and the general commandant of the 
Eastern Internal Provinces, to organize the colo- 
nists into a body of militia commanded by himself, 
to administer justice, and to preserve good order 
and tranquillity. Accordingly, on his way back to 
Texas he laid the subject before the general com- 
mandant at Monterey, asking for special instruc- 
tions. To refer seems at that time to have been 
the great labor-saving device of the inert and unin- 
ventive Mexican officials. The commandant turned 
the question over to the provincial deputation of 
the nascent state of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and 
Texas, then in session at Monterey. The outcome 
was that the deputation gave Austin the rank of 
lieutenant-colonel, but left him substantially with- 
out instructions, saying that his powers under the 
decree of the general government were ample. 

Austin got back to his colony in August, 1823, 
and found it almost broken up. Many of the im- 
migrants had returned, and the recruits that should 
have come in had stopped at Nacogdoches and in 
the eastern settlements. But he went bravely to 
work, and the tide soon set in once more. No 
limits had been assigned for the colony, and the 
settlers chose their lands, with the old Germanic 
instinct of robust self-dependence, " as fountain, or 
plain, or grove attracted them." The result was 
that they were scattered from the Lavaca to the 
San Jacinto, and from the Old San Antonio Road 



150 TEXAS 

to the coast. San Felipe de Austin, on the lower 
Brazos,^ became the capital of the settlement and 
the great centre of Anglo-American interests in 
Texas until the revolution of 1836. 

The failure of the authorities to provide in detail 
for the government of the colony threw the whole 
work of organizing and directing it on Austin him- 
self. He took up the burden without shrinking 
and carried it for five years, when he was relieved 
of it by the organization of an ayiintamiento. Dur- 
ing this period he had many difficulties to over- 
come. The charge of twelve and a half cents per 
acre for the land, which had been agreed to at the 
outset, and which was his only means of reimburse- 
ment for the heavy expense to which the issuance 
and registration of the land titles, and the various 
public enterprises he had to undertake subjected 
him, raised such complaint among the colonists 
after a time that the political chief at B^jar impru- 
dently interfered to abolish it, and substitute a 
fixed schedule of fees for a title amounting to only 
about one third as much per sitio, of which a 
part was finally given to Austin. Though he was 
backed to the fullest extent by the Mexican gov- 
ernment, his authority was questioned by some of 
the settlers. The special grants, too, which he w^as 
authorized to make, and did make to some, became 
the basis for charges of discrimination and the 

^ Sometimes referred to in the records as Austin, but not to be 
confused witli the city of that name on the Colorado, which was 
built for the capital of the Republic. 



AUSTIN'S COLONY 151 

cause of much discontent. Finally the bad char- 
acters whom he had sought to keep out of the 
colony, and was forced to expel when they entered 
it, enforcing his decisions against them by corporal 
punishment when it became necessary, gave him 
no little trouble. But by the exercise of much 
patience, tact, and prudence he got through it all 
with a surprisingly small degree of friction. It 
cost him, however, a great expenditure of vital 
energy, the best evidence of which lies in the fact 
that when the responsibility was lifted from his 
shoulders, in 1828, his health was, as he put it, 
" perceptibly declining." It is more than likely 
that this strain ujjon him assisted materially in 
shortening his life, but it was part of the price paid 
for what is enjoyed by the Texan to-day. 

Of course the crossing of the Sabine wrought no 
change in the character of the Anglo-Americans. 
They were, like any band of men gathered by their 
own choice to participate in such an enterprise, the 
hardiest and most adventurous among the law-abid- 
ing element of their kind, being especially difficult 
to govern by any method which they did not them- 
selves approve. They kept their own institutions, 
slavery included ; and this they did with the greater 
freedom because the centres of superior govern- 
mental authority and power were far away, and the 
forces emanating therefrom were too weak at such 
a distance either to lead or to drive the Texas set- 
tlers along the Mexican way. Free speech, popular 
elections, and practical self-government became the 



152 TEXAS 

rule in Austin's colony from the beginning. The 
merest tyro in history or political science should 
have been able to see in the situation the essential 
elements of a revolution. 

It is beyond the scope of this work to follow the 
history of the colony in detail. After the first two 
years of its weakness and peril it took deep root 
and grew and flourished. The work was done, and 
the result that was to come was thenceforth inevi- 
table. The help lent by other enipresarios only 
served to insure its early consummation. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE CROWD OF EMPRESARIOS 

The concession to Moses Austin was the signal 
for numerous applications to the Mexican govern- 
ment for others. It has been noted that when 
Stephen F. Austin was in Mexico in 1822, trying 
to secure a confirmation of his grant, several per- 
sons were there at the same time seeking permis- 
sion to undertake enterprises similar to that which 
he had already put under way. Their efforts were 
made vain for the time by the suspension, in April, 
1823, of the general colonization law that they had 
succeeded in obtaining from the Iturbide rdgime. 
The suspension, however, was to last only until 
congress could deal with the subject further. 

This was done by a new general law passed on 
the 18th of August, 1824. The previous law had 
framed a system that was to be administered 
directly by the imperial government then in exist- 
ence. For this government the overthrow of Itur- 
bide had substituted what the anti-imperialists 
intended for a federal republic. It proved, as the 
account of it already given shows, a sadly abortive 
affair ; but it was conducted with a degree of re- 
spect to federal principles for a time. The new law, 



154 TEXAS 

therefore, simply laid down certain general provi- 
sions, and then relegated the subject to the states 
for legislation in conformity therewith. These pro- 
visions excluded from colonization a border strip ten 
leagues wide along the coast and twenty along the 
boundary of any adjacent foreign nation, required 
preference to be given Mexican citizens in the dis- 
tribution of land, limited the amount of land that 
might be held by any one individual, and forbade 
any tax on immigration for four years from the pub- 
lication of the law, or any prohibition, before the 
year 1840, of the entry of colonists, " unless impe- 
rious circumstances should require it, with respect 
to the individuals of a particular nation." This 
reservation, in view of the prohibition made by the 
decree of April 6, 1830, is especially significant. 

In accordance with the terms of this enactment, 
the state of Coahuila and Texas passed a coloniza- 
tion law for itself March 24, 1825. The law in- 
vited the entry of immigrants and guaranteed them 
security of person and property and the right to en- 
gage in any calling they might choose. They were 
required to bring certificates from the authorities of 
the places whence they came that they were Chris- 
tians and of good character. Empresar'ios were to 
have five sitios and five lahoi'S of land for each 
hundred families they should bring in up to eight 
hundred. The colonists were to be exempt for ten 
years from all taxes or duties, except in case of 
hostile invasion. Finally, convicts were to be sent 
to Texas to work on the roads or in the service of 



THE CROWD OF EMPRESARIOS 155 

individuals ; and at the expiration of their terms 
they might begin life anew as colonists, sharing in 
the allotments of land, if they could obtain the cer- 
tificates of the civil authorities that they had ren- 
dered themselves fit for such a privilege. 

Now came the opportunity of those who had 
been waiting so eagerly to enter the rich new field. 
They began to take advantage of it immediately. 
Two large grants were made in less than a month 
after the passage of the law, and within the next 
seven years dozens of them were secured by men 
who proposed to bring in many thousand families. 
Austin himself obtained three additional conces- 
sions, and in conjunction with a partner, Samuel 
M. Williams, still another. During this period, 
the whole map of Texas was plastered over, from 
the Sabine to the Nueces, with the claims of the 
emp7'esarios^ as if it had been a gold mining re- 
gion and they prospectors. Ere long it was diffi- 
cult to find room for another. 

This, however, must not be taken as implying 
that there was a flood of immigration, or that the 
empresarios were accomplishing what they had un- 
dertaken. One might suppose, from the energy they 
showed in rushing after grants, that Texas would 
soon be swarming with a new population, but it 
was not so. Texas, even with the boundaries about 
which there has never been a question, is a wide- 
reaching territory, and many people are required 
to make a show on its surface. Most of the con- 
tracts came to nothing, and very few of them can 



156 TEXAS 

be said to have been carried out with any degree 
of success. The most important of these few were 
De Witt's, lying to the west of Austin's, in the 
interior, and having for its principal settlement 
Gonzales ; De Leon's, to the southwest of Austin's, 
adjacent to the coast, with Victoria as its capital ; 
Edwards's, the chief town and capital of which 
was Nacogdoches ; Robertson's, lying northwest 
from Austin's, above the Old San Antonio Road ; 
and McMullen and McGloin's, extending from the 
ten league coast reserve along the Nueces and Frio 
towards the northwest. De Leon's colony was set- 
tled by Mexicans ; while McMullen and McGloin's 
was Irish, and its cajjital was, of course, named 
San Patricio, or St. Patrick. The effect of the 
whole movement was to bring in many immigrants 
besides those who came to Austin's colony, and 
with the general current floated in large numbers 
of families, as well as individuals, attached to no 
particular grant, at any rate until after their entry. 
The country below the Old San Antonio Road, 
including that covered by Austin's colony and 
eastward to the Sabine, filled up with comparative 
rapidity. In 1827 an estimate probably quite near 
the truth put the aggregate population of Texas, 
exclusive of Indians, at ten thousand, while similar 
estimates for 1830 made the number nearly twenty 
thousand, or about five times as many as in 1821. 
Evidently the Anglo-Americans were about to fur- 
nish a solution for the problem of peopling Texas 
with which the Spanish had struggled so long in 
vain ; but it was not a solution in Sjjanish terms. 



THE CROWD OF EMPRESARIOS 157 

One point, to prevent misunderstanding, should 
have a little further emphasis. The immigration 
that was procured and directed by Austin himself 
is not to be regarded, previous to the revolution of 
1836, as a stream that was joined successively by 
others to form a flood in which it was itself merged 
and lost. It must be remembered that, many as 
the other empresarios were, they brought in rela- 
tively few settlers ; and that, up to the revolution, 
Austin's colony was the predominant element of 
Anglo-American Texas, and he the foremost figure 
among the colonists. Nevertheless, the movement 
had so far widened that it was no longer wholly his 
own. 

It was not long, however, before a few of the 
Mexican leaders began to wake to the significance 
of this movement, and to understand the menace 
that lay therein. During the earlier days of the 
Mexican republic, in the first glow of triumphant 
independence and good feeling towards a people 
who had gone through a like struggle and who 
sympathized with Mexico in her own, the dangers 
of inviting Anglo-American colonists to enter 
Texas were lost sight of. But these pleasant rela- 
tions were gradually clouded by the working of 
antipathetic tendencies and divergent interests. 
Repeated efforts to obtain by purchase either the 
whole or a part of Texas showed that the United 
States was not content with the line of 1819, and 
was not free fi-om a certain itching to secure' 
possession, in some way, of the land which had so 



158 TEXAS 

attracted the empresarios. This excited the fears 
of the Mexican government and, along with other 
causes, led it to parallel the liberal policy of the 
state of Coahuila and Texas in making many grants 
with one of restriction in measuring out the privi- 
leges incident thereto. The historian Alaman says 
that orders were issued in 1826 and 1827 to refuse 
admission to colonists from neighboring nations — 
by which was meant the United States — and to 
limit empresarios to the numbers stated in their 
concessions, and in 1828 a law was passed forbid- 
ding the colonization of Anglo-Americans near the 
eastern boundary line ; but all without effect. 

In 1829 Guerrero, who was then exercising dic- 
tatorial powers, issued as his own decree an order 
abolishing slavery, which had failed to become a 
law of congress through the opposition of the 
senate. This measure affected Texas alone, since 
there were almost no slaves other than peons in 
Mexico, and the intention of its main promoter, 
Tornel, was to check immigration from the United 
States ; but Austin, though he was personally much 
opposed to slavery, made such energetic represen- 
tations concerning the mischievous results that 
were to be expected from the decree, that Texas 
was exempted from its operation. The colonists 
had already begun to take steps to evade the pro- 
visions against slavery in the constitution of Coa- 
huila and Texas by making contracts with their 
slaves which converted them into peons, but there 
was little necessity for such caution. The Mex- 



THE CROWD OF EMPRESARIOS 159 

leans were theoretically much in favor of human 
liberty ; practically, however, they cared little whe- 
ther the Texans had slaves or not. If the Mexi- 
can leaders generally were in accord with Tornel in 
wishing to set up a barrier against the United 
States, the government was too weak or too timid 
to execute their measure. 

Finally, on April 6, 1830, the Mexican congress, 
following the initiative of Alaman, secretary of for- 
eign and internal relations, passed a law forbidding 
further colonization in the border states of Mexico 
by nations adjacent. Or importation of slaves ; sus- 
pending contracts unfulfilled ; and requiring pass- 
ports from Mexican consular agents for entry along 
the northern frontier. This law, though it was in 
general terms, affected only Texas ; and from its 
passage can be traced the growth of discontent in 
that department leading to the revolution of 1836. 

The message of initiative sent to congress by 
Alaman on which the decree was based is highly 
interesting to read. While it is marked by a pre- 
judice that leads him to some misstatement of facts, 
and by little comprehension of the remedies that it 
would be safe to try for the evils he had to enumer- 
ate, it shows that he was much beyond his country- 
men in his clear perception of the risk that Mexico 
was incurring by its carelessness. He speaks bit- 
terly of the insidious aggressions of the Anglo- 
Americans, saying that they begin by introducing 
themselves into the country they covet under the 
pretext of business or colonization, and, when they 



160 TEXAS 

have become the dominant part of the population, 
proceed to set up unfounded claims and raise dis- 
turbances, and finally, either by diplomacy or vio- 
lence, obtain possession. He says that they have 
been using such methods in Texas, — with the collu- 
sion of the state government, he charges in effect, 
— and that if General Teran had not chanced to 
make an official visit to the northern frontier in 
1827, and had not observed arid reported what was 
going on, Mexico would already have lost Texas 
without knowing how. The plea of ignorance pre- 
vious to Teran's report here set up must not be 
taken too seriously. If it were true, while it would 
not justify any unprovoked interference in Mexican 
affairs from without, it would go far towards ac- 
counting in itself for the loss of Texas. But there 
is abundant evidence that it was not true. The worst 
aspect of the case consists in the fact that the Mex- 
ican officials were well informed of the mischief 
going on in Texas, but did really nothing to prevent 
it. Alaman was doubtless right as to the danger of 
allowing continued free entry to the Anglo-Ameri- 
cans ; how to keep them out, however, was another 
question. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE FREDONIAN WAR 

Hard upon the opening of the general empresario 
movement began the trouble with the immigrants 
which it was sure to bring. This broke out at the 
spot where conditions were most mature for it, i. e. 
on the eastern frontier at the Nacogdoches settle- 
ment. The disturbance amounted to little in itself. 
Its main signijBcance lies in the fact that it was 
a danger signal. The Mexican authorities may 
well have congratulated themselves that it came to 
nothing worse. But for the conservatism and good 
faith to Mexico of Austin and his colonists, it would, 
in all probability, have hurried forward the Texas 
revolution ten years and annexation twenty. What 
mighty changes such a happening would have 
wrought in the history of the United States it is 
easy to see, but impossible here to discuss. 

Probably the reader has already divined why 
conditions were maturest for such trouble at Nacog- 
doches. This place was a remote and almost com- 
pletely isolated centre of Mexican authority. It 
was the one Spanish settlement surviving on the 
northeastern frontier, and was completely overrun 
by intruders. B^jar and La Bahia, the other two 



162 TEXAS 

Spanish — or Mexican — settlements, were not 
reached by the advancing flow of immigration from 
the east till after the revolution of 1836. At one 
time Nacogdoches had a population of nearly a 
thousand, which was for the most part Mexican, 
It has already been stated that the effect of the 
Gutierrez-Magee and the Long expeditions, together 
with the fears awakened by the revolution of 1821, 
was almost to destroy the settlement. The Mexi- 
cans especially fled, leaving their houses and lands 
to the enjoyment of a handful of more daring Anglo- 
Americans, most of whom were probably refugees 
from the old Neutral Ground. Soon they recovered 
their courage, and gradually they returned to the 
town ; but it was no easy matter to regain possession 
of their homes. That they should make the at- 
tempt, and that they should have the sympathy of 
the Mexican authorities of the state, was only to be 
expected ; on the other hand, one might anticipate 
that the men who had entered upon the abandoned 
property, and who had, some of them at least, ac- 
quired claims that would in these days be consid- 
ered good both in law and in equity, would not give 
np without a struggle. Satisfactory adjudication 
would have been difficult, even if the parties had 
been friendly and desirous of coming to terms ; but 
as they were not, the case was hopeless. It was so 
much the worse in that, while the state government 
was with the Mexicans, the Anglo-Americans could 
count on a degree of sympathy and perhaps of ac- 
tive support from a multitude of their kind who 



THE FREDONIAN WAR 163 

were living along the frontier near at hand. Mea- 
suring strength with strength, as the two sides might 
have been marshaled for the issue at arms, the re- 
sult was doubtful till the balance was thrown by 
Austin's colony in favor of the constituted authori- 
ties. 

One fact that served to aggravate the situation 
at Nacogdoches was that there was near by a band 
of Indians — mostly Cherokees recently come from 
the United States — who were discontented with 
the Mexican government because of its failure to 
give them what they doubtless believed they had 
been promised, a large grant of land in full sover- 
eignty. 

Such was the condition of things on the eastern 
frontier when Hayden Edwards obtained, in April, 
1825, a concession for the colonizing of an extensive 
territory in that quarter, including Nacogdoches. 
It should be kept in mind that this grant was ob- 
tained from the state of Coahuila and Texas, and 
not, like Austin's, from the national government in 
Mexico. Nor were the powers given Edwards as 
extensive as those conferred on Austin. He was to 
respect the titles of original owners, — meaning, of 
course, the Mexican refugees, — to keep bad char- 
acters out of his colony, to use Spanish in official 
documents and when the settlements were made to 
establish schools for the study of the language, and 
to make suitable provision for the exercise of the 
Catholic religion. As to his powers, it was pro- 
vided only that he should raise the militia according 



164 TEXAS 

to law, and be its head till some other arrangement 
should be made. Outside of the conditions enu- 
merated in the grant, he was to be governed by the 
constitution and laws of the nation and the state. 
When he had introduced as many as one hundred 
families, the government was to send a commis- 
sioner, who should put them in possession of their 
lands. 

This grant gave Edwards no authority to pass 
on the claims of previous settlers, but he undertook 
to do so, and was soon deep in trouble. Part of it 
seems to have been with the settlers to the east of 
the San Jacinto — and thus within the limits of his 
grant — who had already secured titles as members 
of Austin's colony. He also asked of his colonists 
a certain sum per acre, as Austin had done. The 
claimants who had been dispossessed by Edwards 
formed a party of opposition to him, led by James 
Gaines and his brothei--in-law, Samuel Norris, the 
alcalde of Nacogdoches, and the antagonism in- 
creased from day to day. The enemies of Edwards 
began to send complaints to the political chief at 
Bejar,^ and the empresaino replied in his own de- 
fense ; but before the matter came to a decisive 
issue he went away to the United States, leaving 
his brother, Benjamin W. Edwards, meanwhile in 
charge of the colony. The complaints concerning 
the management were continued, and Benjamin 
Edwards wrote the governor a letter that was in- 
tended as a justification ; but it seems to have been 

^ The executive of the department of Texas. 



THE FREDONIAN WAR 165 

taken as disrespectful, and the reply consisted in 
the withdrawal of the grant to Edwards. The ex- 
planation given by the political chief was that this 
was done because of the improper exactions of the 
empresario from the colonists. 

This was very exasperating ; for, besides destroy- 
ing the hopes that the Edwardses had centred in 
this undertaking, it involved great pecuniary loss 
and injury to them. Hayden Edwards had acted 
very unwisely in assuming powers not conceded in 
his contract, and more unwisely still in threatening 
those who refused to obey his demands with rig- 
orous treatment which he was not empowered to 
inflict; all of which Austin had told him bluntly 
in a very frank letter of pi'otest written before the 
grant was annulled. On the other hand, the con- 
duct of Gaines and Norris was such as Anglo- 
Americans could hardly have been expected to 
endure peaceably. The empresario would have 
found it difficult, under the circumstances affecting 
his grant, to avoid trouble, even if he had shown 
the utmost prudence ; but his want of caution, not 
to say his improprieties, lay on him heavy respon- 
sibility for the result. By the time the grant was 
annulled, the whole affair was so confused that one 
grows weary of seeking to locate the blame just 
where it should be. Suffice it to say that the Ed- 
wards brothers invoked the remedy of revolution. 

On December 16, 1826, Benjamin Edwards, at 
the head of fifteen men, rode into Nacogdoches 
antl proclaimed an independent republic, which they 



166 TEXAS 

named Fredonia. They took possession of the Old 
Stone Fort and organized a so-called government. 
The next step was to make an offensive treaty 
against Mexico with the Indians, with whom they 
agreed to share the territory of Texas. The In- 
dians were to have all north of a line drawn west 
to the Rio Grande from Sandy Spring, not far 
from Nacogdoches ; while the white revolutionists 
were to have all lying south of the line. Then the 
Fredonians sent letters to the various Anglo-Amer- 
ican settlements and tried to incite their inhabitants 
to join the insurrection. A number of such letters 
were written by Benjamin Edwards to prominent 
men in Austin's colony. An appeal to the citizens 
of the United States also went to Natchitoches, 
but it was sent by a faithless emissary, who gave 
an unfavorable report of the affair, and advised 
against participation in it. 

The rising, however, met with little encourage- 
ment. It was only in Edwards's colony that there 
appeared just then to be any occasion for it, and 
the general mass of Anglo-Americans had little 
interest in the quarrels of the local factions at 
Nacogdoches. In Austin's colony there had been 
up to this time no serious friction with the Mexican 
authorities, and the sentiment of gratitude and lo}^- 
alty towards Mexico in that quarter was strong. 
Had Austin been moved less by this feeling than 
he was, it would have been easy for him, looking at 
the matter from a business standpoint, to see that 
the Fredonian outbreak threatened ruin to the 



THE FREDONIAN WAR 167 

work of the empresarios. Farther than this, the 
Fredonians were in alliance with the Indians, whom 
he and his colonists had good reason to dread. His 
mind, therefore, was quickly made up. He took 
strong ground against the insurrection, using all 
his influence to suppress it, and sending a consid- 
erable detachment of militia from his colony with 
the Mexican troops who marched to put it down. 

First, however, a commission of three prominent 
men was sent from Austin's colony to Nacogdoches 
to gather such information as could be had concern- 
ing the trouble, and to make an effort at concilia- 
tion. They conferred with the leaders both of the 
white and the Indian insurgents, and urged them 
to take advantage of the amnesty which had been 
offered by the Mexican authorities ; but the Fre- 
donians replied that they would accept nothing short 
of independence, with limits at the Sabine and the 
Rio Grande, and that they regarded the Mexican 
government as " corrupt, base, and faithless." The 
committee reported, in addition to what has been 
stated, that the settlers in the neighborhood of Na- 
cogdoches, on the Trinity and Neches rivers and 
Aes Bayou, were loyal to the government, though 
some of them were playing the hypocrite till help 
should arrive. 

The stand taken by Austin's colony was fatal to 
the embryo republic. Had there been any hope for 
it before, none was left after this development, and 
its collapse was only a question of time. 

The insurrection was not suppressed until there 



168 TEXAS 

had been some actual fighting — significant mainly 
as the first violent clash between the Mexicans and 
the colonists whose coming they had invited. On 
January 4, 1827, Norris gathered fifty to seventy 
men, a few Americans among them, and went to 
Nacogdoches to capture the Fredonian garrison. 
It was said that he had expressed an intention of 
hanging them all, but they had to be beaten first. 
There had been a considerable number of them, per- 
haps as many as two hundred, gathered in the town 
at one time ; but most of them had gone to their 
homes, and when Norris approached there were only 
eleven whites remaining. These were joined at the 
moment by nine Indians, and without hesitation 
they charged fiercely upon Norris and his men, who 
soon fled. The Fredonians had one man wounded, 
while of the other party one was killed and several 
more or less hurt. This was the one " battle " of 
the " war." Shortly afterwards a force of three 
hundred Mexicans, accompanied by a contingent 
from Austin's colony, reached Nacogdoches only to 
find it abandoned by the insurgents, and the Fre- 
donian republic already dissolved. Austin solicited 
kind treatment for the prisoners — a few had been 
captured by the government troops on the march 
towards the town — and, contrary to Mexican cus- 
tom, they were released. 

The insignificance of the actual results of the 
Fredonian rising should not lead to underestimation 
of its potency for mischief. It was ruined by its 
prematureness, but it was not as entirely quixotic 



THE FREDONIAN WAR 169 

as some have judged it. The Edwards brothers 
must have known a good deal about frontier condi- 
tions, and they doubtless made deliberate calcula- 
tions as to their chances of success. Their mistake 
lay in resting too heavily on the principle that blood 
is thicker than water, and in failing to consider 
sufficiently either the economic influences at work 
against a general revolution at the time, or the 
loyalty to Mexico among the colonists, which had 
not then been destroyed by suspicion and misgov- 
ernment on one side and resentment and insubordi- 
nation on the other. If the Fredonian republic 
could have obtained general support among the 
colonists, or could have stood upon its feet long 
enough to attract a crowd of adherents like that 
which filled the Neutral Ground or gathered around 
Lafitte on Galveston Island, it might never have 
been suppressed. Indeed, it probably never would 
have been. In such a case, there are three or four 
different turns that the history of Texas might have 
taken. Let him that is fond of such problems work 
out this one. If the Persians had won at Marathon 
the Greek civilization might have been destroyed in 
the blossom, and if Charles Martel had been beaten 
at Tours Europe might have become Mohammedan 
— so it is said ; but neither of these weighty might- 
have-beens was. Nor is the world conscious of what 
it escaped when Fredonia fell still-born from the 
womb of destiny. 



CHAPTER XVI 

MEXICAN MISEULE AND COLONIAL INSUBOEDINA- 
TION 

The Fredonian insurrection failed because the 
time was not ripe. But it was ripening fast, and. 
the United States government was doing much to 
hasten the process. While the liberal policy of 
Mexico was holding Texas open to immigration, 
and the Anglo-Americans were pouring in under 
the various empresarios, the authorities at Wash- 
ington were, as already stated, making continuous 
efforts to push the boundary westward towards the 
Rio Grande. From 1825 on, the offers made to 
Mexico, while never received with favor, were re- 
peated most persistently and with most unhappy 
effect. In 1827, one million dollars was offered for 
the Rio Grande boundary and half as much for 
that of the Colorado. Mexico replied by making 
the adoption of the line of 1819, agreed upon with 
Spain, the price of any commercial treaty at all, 
and in 1828 that point was yielded by the United 
States. Nevertheless the offers continued, and the 
anxiety manifested to possess Texas bred in the 
minds of the Mexican leaders intense suspicion 
of some sinister design, which was easily extended 



MEXICAN MISRULE 171 

from the United States government to the Anglo- 
American colonists themselves. 

Another ground of suspicion towards the colo- 
nists, it is said, was their comparative immunity 
from Indian attacks. For two or three years after 
the founding of Austin's colony, in the time of its 
weakness, it had suffered greatly from the Indians ; 
but as soon as it was felt safe a policy of vigorous 
reprisal and chastisement was adopted, which 
quickly put an end to the trouble. At Bejar, how- 
ever, the depredations of the savages and the insults 
to the Mexicans were continued as before. This 
led the authorities in Mexico to suspect the colo- 
nists — falsely, of course — of some agreement with 
the Indians. 

If, in addition to the fear of an aggressive design 
on the part of the United States, and of a secret 
understanding between the colonists and the In- 
dians, the reader will consider the Fredonian out- 
break, with its sudden revelation of the possibilities 
on the northeastern frontier, he will be in a posi- 
tion to appreciate the feeling of uneasiness relative 
to Texas that was growing on the Mexican govern- 
ment. 

It was out of the suspicion whose origin has been 
explained that the trouble with the colonists arose. 
The feeling led to repressive legislation, couched in 
evasive terms though aimed directly at the Anglo- 
Americans, which appeared bold and decisive, but 
which was either receded from on the appearance 
of opposition, or ineffectively enforced ; the inevi- 



172 TEXAS 

table result being to inspire among the Texans first 
resentment, and then contempt. Moreover the 
continuous revolutionary state of Mexico itself kept 
the attention of its people fixed always on national 
affairs, and made the little share that Texas got 
exceedingly irregular and fitful. The policy of 
the colonists was, in accordance with the advice of 
Austin, to keep as clear as possible of the party 
strife that was so constant and fierce beyond the 
Rio Grande ; but whenever the side that happened 
for the moment to be in power attempted to use 
stringent methods in dealing with the Texans, it was 
but natural that they should be identified with the 
other, and to some extent active in its support. 
Finally, their resistance to the local administration 
set up by the victorious Centralists, and more 
broadly to the whole policy of centralization, drew 
on them the vengeance of Santa Anna, precipitated 
the last appeal to arms, and carried the revolution 
in Texas to a decisive issue. 

The first measure of the Mexican government 
that aroused general opposition among the Anglo- 
Americans was Guerrero's decree of September 15, 
1829, abolishing slavery throughout Mexico. The 
nature and purposes of this decree have been 
explained farther back. There were in Texas 
upwards of a thousand slaves that would have been 
free if the decree had been carried into execution. 
From the Texas standpoint, it was an uncalled for 
and grievously tyrannical measure. To Austin him- 
self, it would perhaps have appeared differently, 



MEXICAN MISRULE 173 

but for the ruin he felt certain it would bring upon 
his work. His earnest protest secured from the 
political chief of the department a suspension of 
the decree until a rehearing could be had from the 
president. A representation dwelling on the guar- 
antees under which the colonists were invited to 
enter Texas was sent by the political chief to the 
governor of the state to be passed on to President 
Guerrero. The governor added a plea of his own 
in transmitting it, in which he emphasized especially 
the mischievous effect that the decree would have 
on the prosperity of the colonies. Guerrero re- 
ceived the remonstrances favorably. There was 
probably but little real interest in the subject on 
the part either of himself or his advisers, and his 
administration was already full of troubles ; it 
must, therefore, have been easy for him to conclude 
that it was better to surrender a point of the Liberal 
propaganda than to create a serious additional diffi- 
culty for bis government. In answer to the repre- 
sentations of the political chief and the governor, 
he issued a declaration, on December 2, 1829, that 
the department of Texas was excepted from the 
operation of the decree of September 15. Thus 
the evil day was postponed for a season. 

The next cause of friction was the decree of 
April 6, 1830. This decree contained provisions, 
based upon the initiative of Secretary Alaman, for 
the use of certain revenues to sustain the integrity 
of the Mexican territory ; for the appointment of 
commissioners to establish colonies of Mexicans 



174 TEXAS 

and of other nations in the frontier states, and to 
look after the execution of the laws concerning 
those colonies ; for the sending of convicts to the 
colonies to work on the fortifications, roads, etc., 
with the privilege of becoming colonists themselves 
at the end of their term ; and for stopping the entry 
of foreigners on the northern frontier without pass- 
ports from Mexican agents, the introduction of 
slaves, and the settlement of colonists from countries 
bounding Mexico in the states adjacent to the line 
of division. It was backed up by a definite scheme 
for its enforcement. General Teran was sent to 
Texas for the purpose, with two battalions of regu- 
lar infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and quite a 
considerable body of presidials and militia under 
his command. A dozen or more military posts 
were established, with garrisons made up largely 
of the lowest class of soldiery, and the entry of 
settlers and the issuance of land titles were stopped 
in all the colonies except Austin's, De Leon's, and 
De Witt's. Immigrants just arrived were ordered 
out of the counti-y, and those on their way in were 
turned back at the frontier ; and some of those who 
came to Texas at the time have left interesting 
stories of how they entered by stealing around Na- 
cogdoches, in spite of the decree. It was, in fact, 
impossible to discover the immigrant who broke in 
illegally, and it may be questioned whether the law 
was really effectual ; but it did check immigration 
and irritate the colonists. 

The presence of the military reminded the Tex- 



MEXICAN MISRULE 175 

aus that the freedom — or perhaps it should be 
called the license — they had hitherto enjoyed was 
now to be permitted no longer. The soldiers, while 
having a wholesome fear of the Anglo-Americans 
around tliem, were sometimes aggressive and inso- 
lent ; but their insults were never taken by the 
colonists in any lamblike spirit. It was especially 
unfortunate that John Davis Bradburn, a Ken- 
tuckian of most arbitrary and tyrannical dispo- 
sition, who had gone to Mexico with Mina and 
remained in that coimtry, was left by Teran in 
command at Anahuac at the head of Galveston 
Bay. This post guarded one of the most impor- 
tant waterways into Austin's colony, and it was 
important that the collection of duties there should 
be attended with the least possible friction. The 
matter was of the greater consequence for the 
reason that the period of six years in which free 
entry of supplies for the colony had been allowed 
by Austin's contract had lately expired, and it 
was a delicate matter to collect duties from people 
who had grown accustomed to having their goods 
free. The situation was not improved by an order 
closing all Texas ports except Anahuac ; the pro- 
tests and threats of the people, however, caused 
Brazoria also to be left open. 

Teran made things worse by interfering with the 
state's administration of colonial affairs. In 1831 
the state government sent Francisco Madero and 
Jose Maria Carbajal, respectively as commissioner 
and surveyor, to issue titles to the settlers on the 



176 TEXAS 

Trinity. They did so, and in the course of their 
official duty established the new town of Liberty on 
the river a short distance above Anahuac. Teran 
thereupon ordered Bradburn to arrest them for 
violating the decree of April 6, 1830. They were 
thrown into prison, and Bradburn dissolved the 
ayuntamiento of Liberty, established one at Ana- 
huac, and undertook to give lands to the settlers 
himself. 

In June, 1832, the explosion for which all this 
was but the preparation came. By that time the 
less conservative element among the colonists be- 
came incapable. of further self-restraint. Vessels 
loaded with goods had begun to pass in and out at 
the mouth of the Brazos, with armed men on board 
and others on shore in cooperation, without any 
pretense of stopping to pay duties. In May, 1832, 
Bradburn had put under martial law the ten league 
strip along the coast, originally reserved from 
colonization but opened later to settlers brought in 
by Austin, and shortly afterwards he arrested Wil- 
liam B. Travis and some other prominent men of 
the colony for alleged insubordinate behavior and 
imprisoned them closely. The colonists now rose 
and marched in force on Anahuac under the com- 
mand of Frank W. Johnson. John Austin, — no 
relative of Stephen, unless very distant, — who had 
brought a contingent from Brazoria, was sent back 
home to get some cannon that were there and bring 
them by water to Anahuac for use in capturing 
Bradburn's fort. But Colonel Ugartechea, who 



MEXICAN MISRULE 177 

was in command at Velasco at the mouth of the 
Brazos, refused to let the schooner bearing the guns 
j^ass out unmolested, and it became necessary to 
attack that post. It was accordingly assaulted, both 
from the river and by land. There were about 
one hundred and twenty-five Mexican troops and 
one hundred and twelve of the colonists. After a 
desperate defense, in which Ugartechea gave the 
amplest proof of his own courage, and his men suf- 
fered greatly from the accurate rifle-shooting of 
the Texans, Velasco was taken on June 27. 

During the interval, Colonel Piedras, who was in 
command at Nacogdoches, had gone with a few men 
to investigate the troubles at Anahuac ; but he was 
intercepted by the Texans and induced to promise 
that he would have Bradburn removed and Travis 
and his companions released. This was done, and 
the trouble in that quarter was over for the time. 
Soon after, the troops at Anahuac marched away 
to take part in the campaigns then in progress in 
Mexico. Bradburn himself escaped in disguise to 
Louisiana. 

In the course of the rising against Bradburn, the 
colonists had bethought themselves of the desira- 
bility of having some excuse to make to the Mexican 
authorities for this disturbance. It was not diffi- 
cult to find one so much in line with their own 
motives and principles as to be a most excellent 
cover, and to make it puzzling, in fact, to decide 
whether they were not perfectly sincere in adopting 
it. Their scheme was to declare in favor of Santa 



178 TEXAS 

Anna, who had, in January, 1832, begun a struggle 
against the tyrannical Bustamante government, and 
who was then posing as the special champion of the 
constitution and the laws of Mexico. They had 
had reason enough to desire the overthrow of Bus- 
tamante ; and enough, on the face of the matter, to 
suj^port Santa Anna. So, while they were gathered 
at Turtle Bayou near Anahuac, in the course of the 
operations against this place, they defined their 
attitude in what were known as the Turtle Bayou 
resolutions. It was a happy thought, and the reso- 
lutions soon served them a good purpose. 

The reports of the rising that had been carried 
to Mexico had led to the belief there that the Tex- 
ans were seeking to transfer their allegiance to the 
United States. Soon after it was over. Colonel 
Jose Antonio Mejia appeared on the coast with a 
large force for the purpose of stopping the move- 
ment. Mejia was of the Santa Anna party, but 
he had concluded a truce with the leader of the 
Bustamante troops against whom he was operating, 
in order that he might avert tliis danger to their 
common country. He brought with him Stephen 
F. Austin, who was returning to Texas from his 
work as a member of the state legislature, and 
whose absence at the time of the outbreak probably 
explains its occurrence. But Mejia was soon con- 
vinced of the loyalty of Texas. He was received 
with great ceremony at Brazoria and immediately 
presented with the blessed resolutions. Nothing 
further was needed to prove to him that the con- 



MEXICAN MISRULE 179 

duct of the Texans had been entirely Innocent and 
l^raiseworthy. But to give him a more complete 
understanding of their views, a gathering of the 
aytintamientos of the colony passed a series of reso- 
lutions In favor of the party of Santa Anna and 
Insisting upon the preservation of the constitution 
and the rights of the state. Copies of these resolu- 
tions were ordered to be sent to Colonel Mejia and 
the political chief, that they might be forwarded to 
Santa Anna and the governor. A similar expres- 
sion was sought from De Witt's colonists, but they 
respectfully requested that they be considered as 
neutral In reference to the quarrels of the national 
parties. 

Meji'a spent a short time in the colony doing what 
missionary work he could for Santa Anna and then 
returned to Mexico. In a little while the desire of 
the troops to join in the struggle that was going on 
beyond the Rio Grande became too strong to resist. 
At one post after another they declared in favor 
of Santa Anna and marched away to swell his army 
in the south. By and by the only garrison left 
among the Anglo-Americans was that at Nacog- 
doches under Piedras. This officer was unpopular 
with the merchants of the town because he sought 
to monopolize for himself the profits of the trade 
with New Orleans. There seemed no good reason 
to the colonists why the man that had Incurred 
their dislike should be allowed to stand alone in 
opposition to the general movement. They rose 
against him to the number of about three hundred 



180 TEXAS 

and attacked his company. He had three hundred 
and fifty men in the Old Stone Fort, but they were 
soon forced to leave it and retreat from the town. 
Before they had gone far, they declared in favor of 
Santa Anna and delivered Piedras to the colonists 
a prisoner. They then were allowed to pass on to 
Mexico. The last of Teran's cohorts was gone, 
and the frontier was once more left to take care of 
itself. 

That year the name of Santa Anna was much 
glorified in Texas, and the colonists sang fulsome 
praises of his character and work, which four years 
later it must have sickened them to recall. 

The disturbances of 1832 and the general unset- 
tled condition of colonial affairs led to the call of a 
convention of the people of Texas. The call for it 
was issued August 22, 1832, by Horatio Chriesman 
and John Austin, respectively first and second al- 
calde of the municipality of Austin, or the San Fe- 
lipe district, and the convention met at San Felipe 
October 1. There were upwards of fifty delegates 
present, and they constituted a general representa- 
tion of the department, the one notable municipality 
unrepresented being Bejar. The subjects specially 
named in the call in response to which the body had 
assembled were the misrepresentation of the Texans 
as seeking independence of Mexico, and the depre- 
dations of the Indians ; but the enumeration made 
by John Austin, in calling the convention to order, 
included only the first of these two, and in addition 
the eleventh article of the decree of April 6, 1830, 



MEXICAN MISRULE 181 

— or the provision forbidding immigration from 
the United States, — the land matters of the east- 
ern part of Austin's colony, and the tariff. Stephen 
F. Austin was elected president of the convention, 
and Frank W. Johnson secretary. All these sub- 
jects and several others were taken under consider- 
ation, and various petitions to the national and 
the state government were adopted, among them 
being one for the free introduction for three years 
of various articles specially needed in the colonies ; 
another disclaiming in most positive terms any 
desire for independence of Mexico, but protesting 
energetically against the eleventh article of the de- 
cree of April 6, 1830, and earnestly praying for its 
repeal ; a third asking for a separate state govern- 
ment for Texas ; a fourth asking for a grant of land 
from the state to be put at the disposal of the peo- 
ple of Texas for use in promoting education ; and a 
fifth praying the state to issue land titles to the set- 
tlers between the San Jacinto and the Sabine and 
to establish new ayuntamientos in that quarter. 
The convention provided for the management of 
the custom-houses, whose functions had ceased when 
the troops left Texas, until the general government 
could take charge of them again, but it declined to 
interfere with the schedule of duties. It adopted 
an address to the ayuntainiento of Nacogdoches 
requesting that body to look into the claims of the 
Indians settled near there and assure them that 
the colonists did not mean to interfere with their 
lands. It appointed a central committee of safety 



182 TEXAS 

and correspondence at San Felipe, which was 
charged with the duty of looking after colonial in- 
terests in general, promoting closer union among 
the colonists, and warning them of the approach of 
danger. This committee was given power to call a 
convention of the Texas people whenever it thought 
necessary, and it had sub-committees in the various 
districts of the department. The convention also 
elaborated a plan for a general militia organization, 
and elected Wily Martin of San Felipe brigadier- 
general. Finally, William H. Wharton was chosen 
to carry the memorials of the convention to the state 
and general governments, and arrangements were 
made to raise by private subscription two thousand 
dollars to pay his expenses. The central committee 
at San Felipe afterwards appointed Rafael Man- 
chola of Goliad a co-delegate. 

The meaning of all this is plain. The colonists 
intended to discharge their obligations to Mexico 
in the most loyal spirit ; but they meant to keep 
on the lookout for any encroachment, and to be 
ready to resist it to the uttermost. 

By the help of information gathered from other 
sources the journal of the convention can be in- 
structively read between the lines. It shows traces 
of the beginning of a factional division in Austin's 
colony growing out of opposition to Austin's 
policy, organized and led by William PI. Wharton, 
who had come to the colony from Tennessee in 
1826. The general spirit of the policy of Whar- 
ton seems to have been in favor of less conciliation 



MEXICAN MISRULE 183 

and more self-assertion in dealing with Mexico. 
He was a candidate for the presidency of the 
convention against Austin, and had the support 
of nearly one third of the delegates. Austin ap- 
pears from this time forward until the revolution 
was actually under way to have been more or 
less driven by a current of radicalism which he 
could not control. It is evident that a majority of 
the colonists thought his policy too conservative. 
Though his prominence as founder of the colony, 
together with their personal respect for and con- 
fidence in him, led them to look to him and put 
him forward as their leader still, they now and then 
broke away from his guidance and adopted mea- 
sures to which he was opposed. Such a measure 
was the presentation of the memorial in favor of 
statehood for Texas. But he had sufficient self- 
restraint to bow to the will of the majority, even 
when it was against his own judgment. It was the 
irony of fate that he was sometimes forced to lend 
himself as the only effective instrument to the ac- 
complishment of that which he personally dis- 
approved. He may have been at times too sensible 
of colonial obligations to Mexico, but to him belongs 
the great honor of giving the revolution clear 
moral defensibility. 

Neither Wharton nor Manchola went to Mexico. 
The convention provoked a storm of disapproval 
from the Mexican authorities. The ayiuitamiento 
of Bdjar wrote to that of San Felipe expressing 
sympathy with the objects of tlie movement, but 



184 TEXAS 

declaring it illegal and ill-timed. The political 
chief and the governor wrote official letters con- 
demning it strongly, and Santa Anna advised that 
General Filisola should be sent to Texas with 
troops sufficient to take care of Mexican interests. 
Austin replied to the political chief defending the 
convention with outspoken frankness. Finally, after 
a little expenditure of time, paper, and ink, the 
Mexicans turned again to their old civil strife, and 
Texas was left to itself once more. 

But the revolutionary impulse was gathering 
strength in Texas, and it could no longer be 
stopped. All that winter the discussion went on, 
with the radicals gaining more and more the upper 
hand, and meanwhile the party of Santa Anna 
triumphed in the city of Mexico. In December 
Bustamante was driven from his office, which was 
filled by Pedraza from then till April 1, 1833. 
On January 19 Santa Anna was elected president 
to succeed Pedraza. Now it seemed as if the oppor- 
tunity of the colonists had come. The central 
committee at San Felipe called another conven- 
tion to meet there April 1. Austin and Wharton 
were again candidates for the presidency of the 
convention, and the drift of changing opinion 
appears in the fact that this time Wharton was 
elected. The convention petitioned for the repeal 
of the eleventh article of the decree of April 6, 
1880, for the modification of the tariff, and certain 
other things ; but its main work lay in drafting a 
state constitution for Texas, which was offered for 



MEXICAN MISRULE 185 

approval to the national government. This consti- 
tution was framed by a committee having for its 
chairman Sam Houston, who had just appeared 
in Texas for the first time. Stephen F. Austin, 
James B. Miller of San Felipe, and Erasmo Seguin 
of B^jar were appointed commissioners to present 
the proj)Osed constitution to the authorities in 
Mexico and urge the petition of the Texans. 
Austin alone went. Though the object of the mis- 
sion was contrary to his judgment, he was the only 
man in the colony that had enough influence with 
the Mexican government and sufficient knowledge 
of the Spanish language and of colonial affairs to be 
available for the purpose, and with magnanimous 
self-sacrifice he undertook the task. He went to 
Mexico, paying his own expenses, and in spite of 
the devastation cholera was then working in the 
city, labored for six months trying to accomplish 
his object ; but he was forced to leave in Decem- 
ber, 1833, with the matter still unsettled. While 
he was in Mexico, however, he had written a letter 
seeking to induce the people of Bejar to join the 
movement that he expected to see in Texas during 
the fall of 1833 for the organization of an efficient 
local government. After his departure Acting- 
President Farias received information of this fact, 
and immediately dispatched after Austin an order 
for his arrest. It took place at Saltillo, and the 
unfortunate prisoner was carried back to Mexico 
and detained there for a year and a half, a con- 
siderable part of the time in close confinement in- 



186 TEXAS 

comunicado. It is not hard to understand his 
outburst in the journal he kept during this period : 
" Philanthropy is but another name for trouble." 
Finally in the summer of 1835, when it appeared 
likely that his restraining influence in Texas would 
be of value to Santa Anna, he was released under 
an amnesty and allowed to return home. 

Meanwhile Santa Anna was concerning himself 
mainly with the work of centralizing the national 
government and making himself absolute, but he 
found time in October, 1834, to hold a meeting of 
some of his civil and military officials, with Austin 
present, to consider Texas affairs. After hearing 
the representations of Austin, he promised that he 
would repeal the eleventh article of the decree of 
April 6, 1830, unless mature consideration devel- 
oped objections to such a course, but he decided 
that Texas could not be separated from Coahuila, 
and that four thousand men should be sent to 
Bejar to pi-otect the coast and frontier. 

Disturbances in Coahuila contributed to keep 
politics from becoming too monotonous in the north 
during the interval. There was a contest between 
Monclova and Saltillo for the seat of government 
which lasted nearly two years, and was terminated 
in favor of Monclova by the arbitration of Santa 
Anna in December, 1834 ; but the quarrel was 
renewed the next yeai*, and, when it was evident 
that the legislature of the state was about to be 
expelled by national troops, that body forestalled 
such action by adjourning shie die, April 21, 1835. 



MEXICAN MISRULE 187 

Governor Viesca attempted to move the capital to 
B^jar, but the archives were captured, and the 
effort failed. Santa Anna now broke up the exist- 
ing government entirely, and put an appointee of 
his own in the office of governor. 

During the years 1833 and 1834 the legislature 
had shown itself liberal enough towards the colo- 
nists. It had divided Texas into the three depart- 
ments of Bejar, the Brazos, and Nacogdoches, had 
provided for the use of English in public commu- 
nications and records and the organization of a ju- 
dicial system with trial by jury, and had passed a 
number of measures greatly desired by the colo- 
nists. But in 1835, when Texas seemed to be on the 
point of breaking away, large bodies of its vacant 
land were sold by virtue of legislative enactment 
for almost nothing — conduct sorely displeasing to 
the general government, as well as to Texas itself. 

By this time the excitement in Texas was run- 
ning high. A war party grew up among the colo- 
nists which, in spite of the disposition evinced by 
the large majority of the Texans to make no hostile 
demonstration till they were more directly attacked, 
was difficult to manage or restrain. Some show of 
violence was to be expected, and ere long it came. 
In January, 1835, the Mexican authorities had un- 
dertaken to resume the collection of duties in Texas, 
and Captain Antonio Tenorio was sent with a hand- 
ful of troops to support the collector at Anahuac. 
He had already had some trouble in discharging the 
duties of his office, when the news came of Santa 



188 TEXAS 

Anna's usurpation in Coahuila. A general meeting 
of the colonists in the department of the Brazos 
held at San Felipe to consider the crisis decided in 
favor of non-interference ; but the war party held 
another meeting and resolved to assert themselves. 
A small band of them organized under the lead of 
William B. Travis, marched to Anahuac, and on 
June 30 expelled Tenorio and his men, starting 
them off towards Bejar. The step was generally 
condemned, but events marched so rapidly that the 
aggressive aspect of it was soon forgotten. 

Rumors of the coming of Mexican troops and 
of evil designs against Texas now spread every- 
where, and the excitement became still more 
intense. Mexican Liberals like Zavala, taking 
refuge in Texas from the despotism of Santa Anna, 
heljjed to fan the flame. Meetings of the colonists 
were held all over Anglo-American Texas, and the 
discussion was fierce. One more act of violence 
served to cap the climax. After the expulsion of 
Tenorio, the Mexican schooner Correo, commanded 
by one Thompson, was sent to Anahuac to look after 
the collection of duties. Thompson committed 
various outrages, and finally caj)tured a United 
States trading vessel on the Texas coast; where- 
upon a Texas vessel captured the Correo in turn 
and sent Thompson along with it to New Orleans 
to be tried for piracy. The issue with Santa Anna 
had now passed the stage of conciliation, and there 
was nothing left but for the colonists to organize 
for self-defense. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION OF 1824 

Like the American Revolution, that in Texas 
was well under way before the colonists were will- 
ing to take the decisive step of declaring themselves 
independent. The revolution passes, therefore, 
through two main phases : at first it was a struggle 
for the constitutional principles on which the Mex- 
ican Federal Republic had been organized ; and, 
when this failed because of the complete triumph 
of Santa Anna in the Mexican states up to the Rio 
Grande, it became necessarily a struggle for inde- 
pendence. 

If the advice of the more radical Texan leaders 
had been followed, the final issue would have been 
precipitated at the outset. Henry Smith, political 
chief of the department of the Brazos, and later 
head of the war party, urged in a circular issued in 
October, 1834, that Texas organize a state govern- 
ment for itself at once ; but a reply opposing such 
a course was issued by the central committee at San 
Felipe over the signatures of six of its seven mem- 
bers. The seventh was W. B. Travis, whose atti- 
tude was consistent throughout. It is impossible 
for one to read the contemporaneous expressions 



190 TEXAS 

of opinion and feeling among the Texans without 
being impressed by the patience and forbearance of 
the great majority of the colonists. This was due 
largely, no doubt, to the influence of Austin himself; 
and just at this time the fact that he was a hostage, 
as it were, for the good behavior of the colonists 
counted for no little in restraining rash measures. 
So when Austin returned to Texas in Septem- 
ber, 1835, there was general anxiety to know his 
views as to the existing situation. The war party 
had been thus far, except for the expulsion of Te- 
norio, — which had been soundly reproved, — and 
the capture of the Correo, — which could hardly 
be denied approbation, — kept well in check. The 
drift of action by various public meetings of the 
colonists held during the summer had been, with 
few exceptions, peaceful and conciliatory. On the 
other hand, a dispatch for Tenorio had fallen into 
the hands of the war party a few days before he 
was expelled, and it bore information that the 
national troops recently victorious in Zacatecas 
would soon be upon the Texans. In addition to 
this, orders had been received in Texas in August 
to arrest Zavala and the leaders of the war party, 
and deliver them to the authorities. No one dared 
to try it, but the unwise policy of Mexico was burn- 
ing the bridges behind in the march of aggression. 
There were calls in various quarters for a general 
consultation. The decisive step, however, was taken 
and the revolution started with authoritative sanc- 
tion, so to speak, when Austin gave his judgment 



STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 191 

and advice to the people of Texas, at a large meet- 
ing held to welcome him at Brazoria on Septem- 
ber 8. He expressed himself in plain and positive 
terms in favor of a general consultation and the 
maintenance of the constitutional rights of Texas. 
The consultation had already been proposed for 
October 15 by the municipality of Columbia, and 
Austin's speech was all that was needed to secure 
general and hearty acquiescence. 

Of course it was well understood that war was 
imminent, and the preparation for it went forward 
energetically. The local committees of safety 
worked actively, and volunteer companies were 
organized in all quarters. Fortunately every man 
had the weapon he needed in his rifle, adapted to 
hunting and Indian fighting alike, and little further 
equipment was required. 

Before the consultation could meet, the outbreak 
of hostilities had occurred. The people of Gon- 
zales had a cannon which had been put in their 
hands four years before to use against the Indians. 
Colonel Ugartechea, who was commanding at Be- 
jar, demanded that it be given up. The demand 
was refused, and Ugartechea sent a lieutenant with 
perhaps one hundred men to take it. This detach- 
ment was prevented from crossing the Guadalupe 
River to enter the town by the removal of the ferry- 
boat, and by misleading statements of the citizens, 
until a force of Texas volunteers could be assem- 
bled. The Mexicans then moved a few miles away, 
and the Texans marched after and engaged them 
on October 2 and put them to flight. 



192 TEXAS 

The Texans followed up the victory at Gonzales 
with an energetic campaign against the frontier 
posts held by the Mexicans. Early during the 
month of October a band of men less than fifty in 
number, hastily organized near Matagorda to drive 
away some Mexicans who were committing outrages 
at Victoria, surprised and captured Goliad or 
La Bahia, obtaining possession of a considerable 
amount of money and arms. About the middle of 
the month a body of three hundred and fifty vol- 
unteers under Stephen F. Austin advanced from 
Gonzales against Bejar. Meanwhile General Cos 
had reached that place with reenforcements to the 
number of five hundred. Early in November a 
detachment of about forty Texans, sent from Go- 
liad, captured the post of Lipantitlan on the 
Nueces above San Patricio ; but the prisoners taken 
were released on promising not to bear arms against 
Texas, and no attempt was made to hold the place 
permanently. 

The reduction of Bejar cost a campaign of nearly 
two months. October 28 a detachment of about 
one hundred men under Colonel James Bowie and 
Captain J. W. Fannin defeated a much larger force 
of Mexicans near Mission Concepcion. A council 
of war was then held to consider the question of 
storming Bejar ; but owing to the strength of the 
fortifications and the want of artillery to breach 
them, it was decided not to make the attempt. On 
November 25 Austin, who had been appointed by 
the consultation, then in session at San Felipe, 



STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 193 

jointly with Branch T. Archer and William H. 
Wharton, to go on a mission to the United States, 
turned over his command to Colonel Edward Burle- 
son and left to undertake his new duties. Previous 
to this the Texan army had received considerable 
reenforcements, among them being two companies 
from New Orleans and one from Mississippi, but 
there was much disorganization in the ranks, and 
men were leaving constantly. The vain siege was 
continued until December 4, when it appeared to 
be about to end in disorder ; but Benjamin R. 
Milam, acting by Burleson's authority and taking 
advantage of a moment of enthusiasm among the 
men, made a sudden ringing call for volunteers to 
follow him in an assault on the city, and the hesi- 
tation was at an end. On the morning of the 5th 
the Texans began fighting their way in from house 
to house with the most desperate courage and de- 
termination. On the 9th the fighting was stopped 
by negotiations for a surrender, and on the 11th 
the capitulation was signed. Cos and his officers 
gave their parole not to resist further the strug- 
gle for the constitution of 1824. He was to take 
a guard of regular infantry and cavalry and con- 
vey the convict soldiers, of which his army was 
largely composed, beyond the Rio Grande. The 
men, except the convicts, were left in possession of 
their arms and effects with permission to remain or 
to go whither they chose. On December 14 Cos 
marched away with a few more than eleven hundred 
men, leaving some two hundred who preferred to 



194 TEXAS 

stay. The losses in tliis affair were for the Tex- 
an s two killed — Milam being one of them — and 
twenty-six wounded, and for the Mexicans alto- 
gether probably one hundred and fifty. 

The capture of Cos at Bejar had left not a man 
in arms against the Texans north of the Rio Grande. 
If the Anglo-Americans were sincere in the decla- 
ration that their purpose was simply to restore the 
constitution of 1824 and in the promise which we 
shall see a little further on they had made to coop- 
erate with the Mexican Liberals, the next step would 
naturally be to carry the war into the interior of 
Mexico and undertake the overthrow of the Central- 
ists throughout the republic. In conformity with 
this idea of the object of the revolution and proper 
management of the campaign, an expedition against 
Matamoras was planned. But at this point differ- 
ences which had already begun to show themselves 
among the Texans in council and in the field began 
to work with such mischievous influence and 
strength that operations both offensive and defen- 
sive were almost paralyzed. The truth is that the 
disasters which marked the campaign of 1836 up to 
the very moment of the victory at San Jacinto were 
only the legitimate result of the cross-purposes and 
counter-efforts in Texas during the previous fall and 
winter. 

While the siege of Bejar was in progress, the 
consultation gathered for the appointed meeting. 
Owing to the absence of many delegates who were 
with the army, there was no quorum. The members 



STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 195 

present were also anxious to take part in the fight- 
ing ; so, after a temporary organization on October 
16, the body adjourned till the next day, and then 
till November 1. It was not able to effect a per- 
manent organization till November 3, and it re- 
mained in session twelve days. In his speech before 
proceeding to business the president, Branch T. 
Archer, declared that he did not view the struggle 
in which they were engaged as that of " Texas bat- 
tling alone for her rights and liberties," but that 
he felt they had undertaken " the work of laying 
the cornerstone of liberty in the great Mexican 
Republic." A committee of twelve, one from each 
municipality, — i. e. each locally organized district, 
— was appointed to draw up a declaration defin- 
ing the attitude of the Texans. The chairman of 
this committee was J. A. Wharton of Columbia, 
brother of W. H. Wharton, who was with the army 
at Bejar. On the 4th Wharton reported for the 
committee ; but the declaration, which has not been 
preserved,^ must have been too radical to suit the 
majority, for a debate followed as to whether it 
should be in favor of independence for Texas, or 
of the principles of the constitution of 1824. Sam 
Houston, who seems to have left Texas soon after 
the convention of 1833 and to have returned just 
previous to the consultation, and who was a delegate 
from Nacogdoches, offered a resolution instructing 

^ Since this statement was written, a document wliicli may be 
the declaration has been discovered among the arcliives in the 
state Capitol, but it has not yet been positively identified. 



196 TEXAS 

the committee to declare in favor of the constitution 
of 1824, but the opposition of Wharton caused him 
to withdraw it. On the 6th the decisive question 
was put, and fifteen votes were in favor of declaring 
absolute independence, while thirty-three favored 
declaring for the constitution of 1824. The oppo- 
sition of Wharton prevented the entry of the ayes 
and noes in the journal, but the votes of the most 
prominent membei's can be determined with a fair 
degree of certainty. 

The report of Wharton's committee was reformed 
to agree with the will of the majoi*ity, and on the 
7th the declaration was adopted. It asserted that 
the Texans had taken up arms " in defense of the 
republican principles of the federal constitution of 
Mexico, of eighteen and twenty-four ; " that they 
were " no longer morally or civilly bound by the 
compact of union," but that out of generosity and 
sympathy they offered help to those Mexican states 
that would make a stand against military despotism ; 
that they claimed the right to govern themselves 
independently or as they might think best while the 
disorganization of the fedei-al government contin- 
ued, but that they would remain faithful to Mexico 
while it was governed by the constitution of 1824 ; 
and tliat they would receive as citizens and reward 
with land all who came to their help in this strug- 
gle. The word " republican " was inserted before 
" principles " in the first section by amendment 
just on the eve of adoption. This declaration, 
made consciously and after mature deliberation, 



STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 197 

was conciliatory beyond what could have been rea- 
sonably expected ; and the failure of Mexico to 
meet it with any sort of concession, though none 
was to be looked for except through the overthrow 
of Santa Anna, justifies the revolution fully. It 
was likewise the extreme and menacing persistence 
of the Mexican Centralists and the inability of 
prostrate Liberalism to rise again at the call of its 
champion that drove Texas from this halfway house 
of the constitution of 1824 to the final lodge of 
independence. That the declaration was perhaps 
dictated in considerable measure by expediency 
does not alter the case. It was at least no repeti- 
tion of the Turtle Bayou resolutions. The time 
for temporizing or extenuating was past, and the 
policy avowed by the Texans was that which they 
were at the moment resolved to pursue. 

Having thus defined the object of the Texans 
in taking up arms, the consultation proceeded to 
organize a provisional government. The scheme 
adopted was double, one part providing for a civil 
and the other for a military organization ; and both 
of them were triumphs of potential confusion and 
conflict of authority. The civil government was 
to consist of a governor and lieutenant-governor 
elected by the consultation, and a council made up 
of one member from each municipality elected by 
its delegates. The governor and council had ill- 
defined and practically coordinate powers, those of 
the council being mainly legislative but partly 
appointive and advisory, and there was no provi- 



198 TEXAS 

sion against deadlocks. It would have been diffi- 
cult to frame an instrument less adapted to the 
emergency. The plan for the military organiza- 
tion was, if possible, even worse. It provided for 
a regular army of eleven hundred and twenty men 
to serve for two years, or for the war, and a militia 
made up of all able-bodied men in Texas. The 
regulars were to be headed by a major-genei-al, 
who was to be commander-in-chief of all the forces 
called into public service during the war. He was 
to be ajDpointed by the consultation, commissioned 
by the governor, and subject to the orders of the 
governor and council. In the field the regular 
army was to be subject to the rules, regulations, 
and discipline of that of the United States, so far 
as applicable to Texas conditions. But on the day 
before its adjournment the consultation took action 
by which it expressly denied the provisional gov- 
ernment any control over the volunteer army be- 
fore Be jar. 

In the election of officers for the provisional 
government, Henry Smith, who had been one of 
the most radical, first of the war party and later 
of the independence party, was elected governor, 
receiving thirty-one votes, as against twenty-two 
cast for Stephen F. Austin. James W. Robinson 
was elected lieutenant-governor, and Sam Houston 
major-general of the armies of Texas ; and Branch 
T. Archer, William H. Wharton, and Stephen F. 
Austin were appointed commissioners to the United 
States. 



STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 199 

Having completed the organization of the provi- 
sional government and commended to it the pro- 
posed expedition against Matamoras, the consul- 
tation adjourned to meet March 1, 1836, unless 
sooner called together by the governor and council. 

It was but a short time till friction was devel- 
oped between the governor and council, which 
grew at length into a violent and unseemly quar- 
rel. The first steps towards it bore a rather ridic- 
ulous aspect. The plan of the provisional govern- 
ment as adopted by the consultation did not confer 
on the governor the veto power ; but the council 
in passing an ordinance to govern the methods of 
legislation made provision for the exercise of this 
power and thus assumed that he was to have it. 
The governor vetoed this ordinance itself, but 
thenceforth exercised the power it seemed to con- 
cede, and there was no protest except where his 
negative was invoked against the appointments of 
the council. Vetoes soon came thick and fast, and 
the council might have had reason to repent its 
concession but for the little difficulty there was in 
securing a two thirds majority to override them. 
The fundamental difference between the governor 
and council was that it was in favor of carrying 
out the policy adopted by the consultation in its 
pronunciamento of November 7, and thus cooper- 
ating with the Mexican Liberals in restoring the 
constitution of 1824 ; while he wished absolute 
independence and was opposed to any dealing with 
the Mexicans. But opposition extended to many 



200 TEXAS 

matters of detail, such as the method of drawing 
on the treasury, the appointment of certain offi- 
cials, and the question of allowing Mexican Liberals 
resident in Texas to vote for members of the con- 
vention that it was desired to call. 

The most serious difference, however, was con- 
cerning the Matamoras expedition. After the fall 
of Bdjar there was a general feeling that such an 
enterprise would be feasible and expedient. About 
the middle of December Smith himself was so far 
influenced by this feeling that he ordered General 
Sam Houston to appoint Colonel Bowie to lead the 
expedition, and the appointment was made ; but 
for some reason Bowie did not go. A few days 
later the governor received a letter from Frank W. 
Johnson, who had succeeded Burleson in command 
of the volunteer army, asking, because of the 
threatening aspect of affairs beyond the Rio 
Grande, for help to strengthen the frontier out- 
posts. The letter was referred to the council, and 
in a report thereon made December 25 the com- 
mittee on military affairs, after presenting various 
considerations in favor of immediate active opera- 
tions against Matamoras, recommended the concen- 
tration of the troops on the frontier. The council 
laid the report on the table for the time ; but 
Houston wrote the governor, in relation to it, pro- 
testing against being ordered away from his central 
position at San Felipe to an outpost, where he said 
a subordinate could " discharge every duty." On 
January 3 Johnson, who had come to San Felipe 



STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 201 

for the purpose, reported that he had ah*eady 
ordered the expedition under authority of an offi- 
cial letter directed to his predecessor in the com- 
mand of the volunteers, General Burleson, and 
that the troops had chosen him to lead it. He 
asked the council to ratify the plan, and it did so 
promptly, taking steps to provide for cooperation 
by sea. On the 6th, however, for reasons given in 
a letter not preserved, he withdrew from the affair ; 
but on the 7th he changed his mind again and 
informed the council that he would go. Mean- 
while Fannin had been authorized to lead the ex- 
pedition. The council now restored Johnson's 
authority, without taking away Fannin's. On the 
8th Fannin published a call for volunteers, who 
were to rendezvous at San Patricio between the 
24th and the 27th. On the 10th Johnson issued 
a proclamation, also calling for volunteers, and 
stating that the " whole of the volunteer army of 
Texas " was expected to advance from San Patri- 
cio between the 25th and the 30th. Houston com- 
plained that he was being superseded, and Gov- 
ernor Smith, who was in sympathy with him, saw 
that something must now be done by the major- 
general himself. So the governor gave him orders 
to go to the frontier. 

The quarrel between the governor and council 
now reached its culmination. This was brought 
on by a report that was made to Houston by Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Neill, in command at Be jar, and 
forwarded to the governor, in a letter dated Jan- 



202 TEXAS 

uary 6. It stated that tlie volunteers on leaving 
for Matamoras had taken all available supplies 
and left the men at the post destitute of actual 
necessities. Smith was utterly beside himself, and 
on January 10, with the fever of his rage hot 
within him, he penned an intemperate message to 
the council, calling some of its members whom he 
did not name " Judases," " scoundrels," and " par- 
ricides," and using expressions towards them that 
were still more offensive. He concluded by in- 
forming them that the body was adjourned until 
March 1, unless it should be convened by procla- 
mation at an earlier date, and that he would con- 
tinue to do his duty as commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy and as chief executive. 

The council made a severe and dignified reply, 
in which it characterized the message as " unwor- 
thy of, and disgraceful to the office whence it em- 
anated, and as an outrageous libel on the body to 
whom it is addressed." It followed this up with 
a series of resolutions ordering the governor " to 
cease the functions of his office and to be held to 
answer to the Genei'al Council" on an impeach- 
ment to be preferred against him by that body, 
and recognizing Lieutenant-Governor Robinson as 
acting governor. An exculpatory address was 
issued to the people of Texas by the council, and 
charges and specifications against the governor 
were made out and he was furnished with a copy. 
He was informed that he might, if he preferred, 
answer to the convention that was to meet in 



STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 203 

March. On the 12th Smith sent the council 
another message which, though rather offensive in 
its demands, was intended to be conciliatory ; but 
the council replied that the time for compromise 
and conciliation was past. On the 13th he sent a 
communication stating, among other things, that 
he held himself ready to answer his impeachment 
before the convention. On the same day the 
council passed a resolution directing the secretary 
of the governor, Charles B. Stewart, who was also 
recording clerk of the council, to communicate offi- 
cially with Robinson instead of Smith, and to hold 
the archives of the executive office subject to the 
order of Robinson. On the 14th it adopted a reso- 
lution requesting Governor Smith to deliver to its 
j^resident the public correspondence and documents 
then in his hands or to be received by him. On 
the 16th Stewart was suspended from office and 
fined twenty -five hundred dollars for contempt of 
the council in not obeying the resolution of the 
13th. On February 3 Smith sent the council a 
demand for certain " executive papers," threaten- 
ing in case of non-compliance to order the arrest 
of the members and their transmission to B^jar to 
be tried by martial law. When the convention 
met, both sides presented statements concerning 
the quarrel ; but that body replied simply by ask- 
ing for the documents in possession of both, and 
refused to go farther into the affair. Thus ended 
an episode as ridiculous as it was disgraceful. 
But it was also supremely mischievous ; for it 



204 TEXAS 

ruined the campaign so well begun by tlie capture 
of Bejar and almost paralyzed the defense of Texas. 
The Matamoras expedition was broken up, but the 
isolated frontier outposts were neither abandoned, 
nor were they adequately defended. What the 
result of a little more energy directed that way 
would have been remains among the untried issues. 
There are some who believe that it would have been 
effective only in dividing and weakening the Texan 
forces ; but others are of the opinion that if the 
invading Mexicans had been met on the frontier 
line with the whole strength of Texas, and with 
the spirit afterwards displayed at the Alamo, they 
would never have reached the Anglo-American set- 
tlements at all. However that may be, with Smith 
and Houston pulling one way and the council, to 
gether with Johnson, Fannin, and a crowd of minor 
leaders, the other, the outcome was at least tempo- 
rarily disastrous. 

In response to appeals for reenforceraents from 
Lieutenant-Colonel Neill in command of the Alamo, 
General Plouston dispatched Colonel Bowie with a 
small force, instructing Neill to demolish the fortifi- 
cations at Bejar and carry off the artillery. Neill, 
however, was without teams to bring away the guns, 
so he did not obey the order. Governor Smith sent 
Travis also, with the men in his detachment. Soon 
afterwards Neill left for home, because of ill health, 
leaving Travis at the head of the troops. The latter 
claimed command of the regulars and the volunteer 
cavalry, while Bowie was at the head of the other 



STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 205 

volunteers. The little garrison numbered only 
about one hundred and fifty, all told, and Santa 
Anna was soon upon it with an army several thou- 
sand strong. 

At Refugio Houston succeeded in persuading 
most of Johnson's men to leave him, and soon after- 
wards they joined his own forces. Johnson and 
Doctor Grant, another one of the leaders who had 
brought contingents for the expedition, went on to 
San Patricio with less than one hundred men. A 
little later the two detachments were separated, and 
first Johnson's party and then Grant's was slaugh- 
tered by the Mexicans almost to a man. Johnson 
himself, by the rarest good fortune, escaped. 

Fannin marched to Goliad, where he had over 
four hundred men. On his way thither he had 
been elected to command the force. More than 
once he declared himself ready to serve under Hous- 
ton if the latter could only be persuaded to lead the 
expedition against Matamoras ; but the commander- 
in-chief had gone to the east under a commission 
from the governor to negotiate a treaty with the 
Indians, and Fannin had to act for himself. It was 
by this time known that the Mexicans were invad- 
ing Texas in force, and he awaited them in the 
Goliad fortress. About the middle of March he 
received orders from Houston, who had meanwhile 
resumed his functions as commander-in-chief to 
blow up the fortress and fall back to Victoria ; but 
he had sent out two parties respectively under Cap- 
tain King and Lieutenant-Colonel Ward, and he 



206 TEXAS 

waited three or four days to hear from them. No 
news came, and March 19 he started on his re- 
treat. He had gone but a few miles when his force 
was surrounded by Mexicans, and a fight ensued 
which lasted till night came on. The next morn- 
ing, seeing himself helpless, Fannin surrendered, 
as the survivors among his own men said, with 
the agreement that they should be treated as prison- 
ers of war ; but Urrea, the Mexican commander, 
claimed that it was at discretion. In a few days 
Ward's men, who had been captured soon after 
Fannin's, were added to the body of prisoners, but 
King's had been almost completely massacred. 
March 27 the prisoners to the number of three 
hundred and seventy-one were marched out under 
guard and shot down like cattle in the shambles, 
though in the confusion of the slaughter, twenty- 
seven of them were fortunate enough to escape. To 
give this infernal deed the little palliation that can 
be found for it, one must remember that Fannin's 
troops were mainly from the United States, and 
from the Mexican standpoint were filibusters ; but 
this fact will scarcely serve to check the reader's 
indignation. 

From the Alamo Travis made repeated calls for 
help, avowing his determination never to give up 
the place. On the morning of March 1 thirty-two 
men from Gonzales made their way through the 
beleaguering Mexicans into the fort, thus swelling 
the number of its doomed inmates to one hundred 
and eighty-three. As the defense of the Alamo is 



^ 

^ 



r 






[Fwsimil, <.//*« Travis Ullcr] 







V ^ 




STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 207 

the most heroic event in American history, so, as 
the writer of this vohime believes, is the letter in 
which Travis announced the opening of the siege 
the most heroic document among American histori- 
cal records. Therefore to the printed copy which 
follows is added a reproduction in which the letter 
appears, as nearly as possible, just as it left the 
hand that penned it : — 

COMMANDANCY OF THE AlAMO, 

Bkjab, Feb'y 24th 1836. 
To the People of Texas and all Americans in the world. 

Fellow citizens and compatriots — I am besieged, by 
a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. 
I have sustained a continual Bombardment and cannon- 
ade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy 
has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the 
garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. 
I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and 
our flag still waves proudly from the walls. / shall 
never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the 
name of Liberty, of patriotism and eveiy thing dear to 
the American character, to come to our aid with all dis- 
patch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and 
will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four 
or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined 
to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a sol- 
dier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and 
that of his country. Victory or Death. 

William Barret Travis, 
Lt. Col. comdt. 

P. S. The Lord is on our side. When the enemy 
appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. Wo 



208 TEXAS 

have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels 
and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves. 

Travis. 

Men are often overawed by the storms they con- 
jure up themselves. It was not so with Travis. 
He had done more, perhaps, than any other man to 
precipitate the revolution, but he faced its concen- 
trated fury with unwavering courage to the last. 
Even in the simple " shall " of his sentence of self- 
devotion, whose propriety of diction has been much 
impeached, thei^e is a calm bow to destiny not yet 
unveiled that no strenuous " will " could equal in 
its significance. 

The Alamo was besieged from February 23 to 
March 6, when it was taken by storm. In the 
early morning the Mexicans, assaulting it simultane- 
ously at three different points, swarmed in through 
the breaches and over the walls. A desperate hand- 
to-hand struggle followed, and all but about a half- 
dozen of the Texans died fighting. Four or five 
were found after the assault hiding in the rooms of 
the Alamo, and a Mexican officer begged that their 
lives might be spared ; but Santa Anna ordered 
their immediate execution, and they were shot at 
once. One or two others made desjDerate but un- 
successful efforts to escape, one of them being cap- 
tured under a bridge a half hour later and forth- 
with put to death. Not a man of the garrison was 
left alive. The only survivors were three women, 
including Mrs. Almerion Dickinson, the wife of a 



STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF 1824 209 

lieutenant belonging to the garrison, the baby 
daughter of Mrs. Dickinson, one other child, and a 
negro boy. The Mexican loss has never been fully 
ascertained ; but an estimate by a cool and care- 
ful writer, who based it largely on information 
from those who took part in the assault, places the 
number of killed and wounded at about five hun- 
dred. 

The fourth act of the revolutionary tragedy was 
now over, and the drama hastened rapidly to a 
conclusion. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 

The convention met according to the call of the 
council on March 1, 1836, at the town of Wash- 
ington on the Brazos. It remained in session only 
seventeen days, but during this time it did notable 
work. Its most important act was to bring into 
existence the Republic of Texas, and to give a new 
direction to the war with Mexico. 

In organizing the convention, Richard Ellis, from 
Pecan Point on Red River, was elected president, 
and H. S. Kimble secretary. Concerning the mem- 
bership, it is worthy of note that very few of them 
had served as delegates to the consultation or the 
two conventions that had marked the earlier efforts 
of the colonists to obtain peaceable redress for 
their grievances. This fact itself helps to show how 
the conservatives, who had hitherto been trusted 
and followed, were now losing their hold. Stephen 
F. Austin was in the United States in the discharge 
of his duty as commissioner, but Sam Houston was 
present as a delegate from Refugio. Two promi- 
nent members of the council who claimed to have 
been elected had tlieir seats contested. On account 
of the contradictory evidence, and the want of time 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 211 

for a new election, an effort was made to have all 
the claimants seated ; but it failed, and the seats in 
both cases went to the contestants. 

That the convention would declare Texas inde- 
pendent was a foregone conclusion. It had become 
clear that there was no longer any middle ground 
to take. Whoever may have been to blame for it, 
the policy of cooperating with the Mexican Liberals 
had failed ; or perhaps it would be more accurate 
to say, had been thwarted. There was no longer 
any hope of keeping the war out of Texas, and it 
was even while the convention sat that the tragedy 
of the Alamo was enacted and the defense of the 
frontier broke down. The Anglo-Americans were 
at length thrown upon their own resources and the 
help of their friends in the United States. Every 
reason, both of right and expediency, now called 
for a declaration of independence, and even the 
most cautious and scrupulous of the colonists began 
to consider it as the only alternative. Austin him- 
self, who to the last was keenly sensible of his 
obligation to Mexico, and whose moral stature and 
want of fitness for revolutionary leadership were 
made equally conspicuous by the crisis, was won 
over. The change in his views seems to have taken 
place at the time of his passage to the United States 
in the winter of 1835. In letters written fi'om 
New Orleans on January 7, 1836, he declared that 
he had become convinced and was in favor of an 
immediate declaration. The growth of this convic- 
tion was due apparently to the state of public sen- 



212 TEXAS 

timent in New Orleans, which demanded absolute 
separation from Mexico as the condition for aid for 
Texas. 

Public opinion in Texas, however, was the deter- 
mining factor with the convention. As already- 
intimated, the feeling had, in the first two months 
of 1836, become practically unanimous. The growth 
of it had been vigorous and steady for months be- 
fore ; and though it had not been powerful enough 
to control the consultation or the council, it had 
furnished in a high degree, no doubt, the opposing 
strength that defeated the execution of their mea- 
sures. Incident to the social and j)olitical organ- 
ization of the Texas then existing was a strong 
sense of local independence, and at the same time 
a great deal of impatience in the separate communi- 
ties over the want of a united and consistent policy 
in the face of imminent invasion. This impatience 
broke forth at Goliad, December 20, 1835, in a 
declai'ation signed by ninety-one citizens, which 
anticipated the act of the convention. How the 
sijrners regarded the situation of Texas at the time 
is best stated in the words of the instrument itself. 

It says that — 

They [the signers] have seen the enthusiasm and the 
heroic toils of an army bartered for a capitulation, humili- 
ating in itself, and repugnant in tlie extreme to the pride 
and honor of the most lenient, and no sooner framed 
than evaded or insultingly violated. 

They have seen their camp thronged, but too fre- 
quently, with those who were more anxious to be served 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 213 

by, than to serve their country — with men more desir- 
ous of being honored with command than capable of 
commanding. 

They have seen the energies, the prowess, and the 
achievements of a band worthy to have stood by Wash- 
ington and receive command, and worthy to participate 
of the inheritance of the sons of such a Father, frittered, 
dissipated, and evaporated away for the want of that 
energy, union, and decision in council, which, though it 
must emanate from the many, can only be exercised effi- 
ciently when concentrated in a single arm. 

They have seen the busy aspirants for office running 
from the field to the council hall, and from this back 
to the camp, seeking emolument and not service, and 
swarming like hungry flies around the body politic. 

They have seen the deliberations of the council and 
the volition of the camp distracted and paralyzed by the 
interference of an influence anti-patriotic in itself, and 
too intimately interwoven with the paralyzing policy of 
the past, to admit the hope of relief from its incor- 
poration with that which can alone avert the evils of the 
present crisis, and place the affairs of the country beyond 
the reach of an immediate reaction. 

They have witnessed these evils with bitter regrets, 
with swollen hearts, and indignant bosoms. 

The document concludes by declaring tlie inde- 
pendence of Texas, and the signers express them- 
selves as " relying with our entire confidence upon 
the cooperation of our fellow citizens." By the 
end of the next two months all Texas was of the 
same mind. 

So the first work of the convention, after it had 



214 TEXAS 

organized, was to appoint a committee to draft 
a declaration of independence. The next day, 
March 2, the committee reported, and the report 
was unanimously adopted. The declaration charged 
that the Mexican government had broken faith 
with the colonists by failing to secure them " that 
constitutional liberty and republican government, 
to which they had been habituated ; " had " sacri- 
ficed [their] welfare to the state of Coahuila ; " 
had unjustly imprisoned Austin ; had refused to 
secure trial by jury ; had " failed to establish any 
public system of education ; " had rendered the 
military superior to the civil power ; had dissolved 
the state government by force of arms ; had sought 
to arrest Texas citizens and carry them to the 
interior for trial ; had made piratical attacks on 
Texas commerce ; had denied the Texans freedom 
of conscience ; had commanded them to give up 
their arms ; had invaded their country by land and 
sea ; had excited the Indians against them ; and 
" had continually exhibited every characteristic of 
a weak, corrupt, and tyrannical government." 
Against one or two of these allegations Mexico 
might have had some defense ; but the indictment 
was essentially true and proper, and fully justified 
the assertion of independence. 

The convention then addressed itself to the task 
of framing a constitution. The instrument that 
was the outcome of their labors was copied in many 
of its features from the Constitution of the United 
States, but of course it was necessarily adapted to 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 215 

a single state, and not a federal union. It required 
congress to introduce by statute the common law, 
with such modifications as might seem called for, 
as early as practicable, and provided that the same 
system should be the rule of decision in all criminal 
cases. Ministers of the gospel and priests were 
made ineligible to the presidency or to congress. 
It was made the duty of congress to provide by 
law, as soon as circumstances would permit, a gen- 
eral system of education. Persons refusing to par- 
ticipate in the war or aiding the enemy were to lose 
their rights of citizenship and their land ; heads 
of families were to have each a league and lahor 
— in all about forty-six hundred acres — and each 
single man over seventeen years of age one third 
of a league ; and certain acts of the legislature of 
Coahuila and Texas passed in the years 1834 
and 1835, under which enormous amounts of land 
in Texas had been improperly disposed of, were 
nullified. 

As to slavery, the constitution provided that 
persons of color who had been slaves before their 
immisfration to Texas should remain such. Con- 
gress was forbidden to pass any law to prevent 
immigrants from bringing their slaves with them, 
or to emancipate slaves ; nor was any person to be 
allowed to free his slaves, except by consent of con- 
gress, unless he first sent them beyond the limits of 
the Republic. Free negroes were not to be allowed 
to live in Texas without the consent of congress, 
and the African slave trade, or the introduction of 



216 TEXAS 

negroes except from the United States, was prohib- 
ited and declared piracy. 

This establishment of slavery in Texas was no- 
thing more nor less than was to have been expected. 
To judge the act by the prevailing standards of a 
subsequent age and to condemn it is substantially 
to condemn the way that nature has of woi-kiug 
out its own processes. To the student with gen- 
uine historical insight, who takes men as he finds 
them and seeks an explanation of every movement 
in a searching analysis of the forces that lie be- 
hind it, such reprobation has little significance 
except as a mark of progress. It easily leads to a 
complete misunderstanding of the past. It would 
be idle to suppose that the colonists, the great 
majority of whom were from slaveholding States, 
and many of whom had brought their slaves to 
Texas with them, would not have legalized slavery 
in framing a constitution. A still greater error 
has been committed by some in accepting the view 
that the colonization of Texas and the revolution 
was the work of the " slavocracy." Naturally 
enough, the movement resulted in a wide extension 
of the slaveholding area ; but the idea that it was 
consciously inaugurated and carried out with that 
object in view is too palpably mistaken to be worth 
discussion. 

Towards the end of the session, the committee 
on naval afPairs, in reporting on a communication 
from the collector of customs at Velasco relative 
to the smuggling in of a cargo of slaves by Mon- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 217 

roe Edwards, made the following expressions con- 
cerning the slave trade : — 

Your committee feel bound to give it as their opinion, 
that the introduction of African Negroes, is in contra- 
vention of the existing Treaties between most nations, 
and the existing laws of this land. And your commit- 
tee have no hesitancy in stating their views and belief 
of the extreme impolicy of either covertly or directly 
countenancing a traffic, which has called forth the indig- 
nant condemnation of nearly the whole civilized world. 
It is to that civilized world that we now, in our present 
struggle look for sympathy, and hojje from that sympa- 
thy to extract assistance. . . . 

Your committee therefore respectfully suggest that, 
as a nation just ushered into existence, it most eminently 
becomes our duty and pohcy to adapt our measures to 
the genius and spirit of the age. We must be governed 
by the opinions of others — we must so regulate our in- 
fant steps as to deserve the kind and watchful solicitude 
of older nations. But while advocating the broad and 
abstract principle of justice, let us not by taking a retro- 
spective view, of a doubtful and exciting question, inter- 
fere with or violate the just rights of our citizens. 

What the committee said appears to have struck 
the convention as worth saying, for an order was 
passed immediately for the printing of one thou- 
sand copies of the report. How these were to be 
distributed is not shown by the journal, but it is 
not improbable that a search in the public archives 
of European nations would bring to light a number 
of them. 

In the course of its labors the convention 



218 TEXAS 

adopted various emergency measures for the reliei 
of general or special grievances and for the con- 
duct of the war ; and finally, on the day before its 
adjournment, it provided for the organization of a 
provisional government vested with all the powers 
given to congress by the constitution, except for 
legislative and judicial acts. The officers were to 
be a president, vice-president, attorney-general, and 
secretaries of state, war, the navy, and the treasury. 
They were all to be elected by the convention, and 
a majority of them was to determine any question 
as to the extent of their powers. The president 
was to appoint, with the advice and consent of his 
cabinet, all officers in public service during the 
existence of the provisional government ; and that 
government was specially empowered to borrow 
one million dollars and pledge the faith and credit 
of the Republic for its payment, to appropriate the 
available funds to the defense of the country, and 
to make treaties with and send commissioners to 
any foreign power. David G. Burnet was chosen 
president, and Lorenzo de Zavala vice-president. 

All this work was done in the midst of alarms. 
The two letters sent out by Travis, respectively on 
i^'ebruary 23 and 24, had spread the news of the 
investment of the Alamo, and the convention 
began its labors with great anxiety for the fate of 
the little garrison and of the settlements which its 
capture would lay open to invasion. March 4 
Sam Houston was appointed commander-in-chief 
of all the Texas troops, regulars, volunteers, and 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 219 

militia. He was to be subject to the general orders 
of the government de facto ^ pending the election of 
a president in accordance with the constitution. 
The day on which this action was taken was Fri- 
day, and the convention adjourned that afternoon 
until the following Monday to give time for the 
work of the committees ; but on Sunday, March 6, 
it was assembled to hear the reading of the letter 
sent out by Travis on March 3 — the last before 
the assault. Houston made a speech relative to his 
previous course as commander-in-chief, thanked the 
convention for his reappointment, and left to join 
the little force that was gathering at Gonzales. It 
was in the early morning of the same day, as will 
be remembered, that the storming of the Alamo 
had taken place, but the news did not reach the 
convention till the afternoon of the 15th. 

Shortly after his departure from Washington, 
General Houston had sent orders to Fannin at 
Goliad to march immediately to Cibolo Creek, east 
of Bejar, to effect a junction with the troops under 
himself, the plan being for the united force to 
march to the relief of Travis and his men ; but on 
reaching Gonzales he found in circulation a rumor 
that the Alamo had fallen, and he sent further 
orders to Fannin directing him to fall back to Vic- 
toria as soon as practicable. The results of Fan- 
nin's tardy efforts to obey this order have already 
been described. 

Houston's arrival at Gonzales was on March 11. 
He found there three hundred and seventy-four 



220 TEXAS 

men — trustworthy enough as fighters, but practi- 
cally without military training. On the 13th Mrs. 
Dickinson arrived with certain information of the 
fall of the Alamo and the advance of the Mexi- 
cans. A retreat was ordered at once, but before 
Gonzales was finally abandoned, it was burned to 
the ground. 

Texas is crossed by a number of rivers flowing 
southeastward, which constituted the best available 
lines of defense against the invader. Gonzales, 
then the western outpost of Anglo-American settle- 
ment, is situated .on the Guadalupe, about sixty 
miles east of Bejar. The retreat of the Texans 
which began at this river continued, with various 
deflections and pauses, for nearly six weeks, grad- 
ually converging towards the coast, and finally 
coming to an end on the San Jacinto, not far from 
the eastern border of the settlements. 

This retreat of course left the settlements de- 
fenseless. Under almost any circumstances the 
prospect of being overrun by an invading army 
would arouse great uneasiness in a community 
from which the men have been drained away by 
the exigencies of war ; but the sickening dread 
that would be inspired by the approach of an army 
whose reputation had gone before it in such stories 
as those of Goliad and the Alamo must be left to 
the imagination. Every human being that could 
go fled eastward towards the Sabine at once, taking 
whatever it was possible to carry away on brief 
notice and with little means of transportation, and 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 221 

the river crossings were soon choked with a throng 
of terror-stricken fugitives. While the intense 
apprehension was the worst that the general crowd 
had to endure, there was no small degree of phy- 
sical suffering and distress. Children born in a 
wayside hut or a thicket surrounded by Mexican 
soldiery became living reminders of the horrors of 
that flight. 

During this time the men who had gathered to 
the army under Houston were growing constantly 
more desperate and insubordinate. From the time 
the retreat began from the Guadalupe until it was 
renewed at the Colorado his force grew, until it 
amounted to perhaps fifteen hundred ; ^ but as soon 
as he began to fall back from the Colorado to the 
Brazos, the men commenced leaving rapidly. 
When he reached the Brazos, two companies, one 
under Mosely Baker and the other under Wily 
Martin, refused to go farther, and had to be left 
behind. Baker's company rejoined the main body 
after it left the Brazos ; but a detachment of two 
or three hundred, consisting of the sick and ineffi- 
cient with some guards, was left behind near Harris- 
burg just previous to the battle of San Jacinto, and 
the number engaged in the battle was only about 
eight hundred. 

It is not strange, in fact, that the army melted in 

^ There has been much controversy as to the actual number. 
Houston afterwards put it at only seven hundred ; but the esti- 
mates of half a dozen or more of his officers vary from thirteen 
hundred and sixty to eighteen hundred. 



222 TEXAS 

such fashion. Houston kept his plans to himself ; 
and, though the men were eager to fight, no one 
knew when or where the retreat might be expected 
to end. They were crazed by the uncertainty and 
suspense concerning their families, of whose peril 
they were well aware, but of whose fortunes they 
knew little ; and in view of their imperfect organi- 
zation and the want of military discipline among 
them, the wonder is that, under such circumstances, 
enough of them held together to finish the campaign. 
The fact that they did is the best evidence of 
Houston's fitness for leadership. 

The retreat from Gonzales began on the even- 
ing of March 13, and the Colorado was reached 
at Burnham's Crossing, near the present site of La 
Grange, on the afternoon of the 17th. At that 
place a halt of two days was made, after which the 
army passed down the east bank of the river to 
Beason's Ford, near where the town of Columbus 
now stands. There it remained until March 26, 
when Houston ordered a retreat to the Brazos. 
Meanwhile the Mexican general Sesma had been 
dispatched by Santa Anna after the Texans. He 
had made his way direct towards Beason's Ford, and 
had reached the west bank of the river soon after 
Houston had put himself in the way on the other. 
Sesma arrived with only a little over seven hundred 
men, and the Texans were eager for a fight. Military 
critics would probably agree that this was the best 
opi^ortunity of the campaign. The Mexican force 
in Texas was considerable, but it was in widely 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 223 

separated divisions. One under General Andrade 
had been left at B^jar, one under Colonel Amat was 
coming by way of Gonzales to join Sesma, one 
under General Gaona was on the march from B^'jar 
towards Nacogdoches, — being then west of Bastrop 
on the Colorado, — and another under General 
Urrea was at Victoria. There was nothing to pre- 
vent the possible concentration of all these against 
the one small army under Houston except a prompt 
and decisive blow, such as might have been struck 
on the Colorado. Neither could it have been diffi- 
cult to foresee the demoralization among the troops 
and the people at large that further retreat must 
bring:. But Houston seems to have underestimated 
the desperate fighting spirit in his men, and to 
have been overcautious about matching them with 
regulars. He fell back to San Felipe on the Bra- 
zos, and thence up the river about a day's march 
to " Groce's," near where has since grown up the 
town of Hempstead. It was at San Felipe that 
Wily Martin and Mosely Baker refused to retreat 
farther, and Baker was left to defend the crossing 
there, while Martin was sent to guard that at Fort 
Bend, lower down. 

At Groce's Houston stopped for two weeks, 
which he endeavored to employ in the better organ- 
ization of his army ; but his efforts towards the 
development of discipline and espi'it de corps were 
ineffective by reason of the feverish impatience and 
anxiety among the men. During the interval Santa 
Anna had taken command of Sesma's division on 



224 TEXAS 

the Colorado, and had led it straight to the Brazos 
at San Felipe. There he was checked for several 
days by Baker's company, but he finally effected a 
crossing at Fort Bend. He then hurried to Harris- 
burg and thence to New Washington on Galveston 
Bay, with the aim of capturing President Burnet 
and his cabinet. Failing in this, he returned to 
the San Jacinto River, and there at last, on April 
20, he came upon the Texans. 

While Houston lay inactive at Groce's, — not 
having revealed his plans, — with Santa Anna 
pressing forward and the uneasiness becoming- 
hourly more intense, the provisional government put 
its hand into the affair. A meeting of the cabinet 
was held, and it was decided that Rusk, the secre- 
tary of war, should go to the army and seek to 
bring on a battle. President Burnet wrote a sharp 
letter to Houston telling him that the enemy was 
laughing him to scorn, that the country expected 
him to fight, and that he must do so. 

April 14 the Texan army left Groce's. The 
march was first along a route but slightly south of 
east that might have been followed if the destination 
had been Nacogdoches, and some have claimed that 
Houston meant to go in that direction, but the evi- 
dence seems to show that he was aiming at Harris- 
bui-g from the outset. Only a few miles had been 
covered when a turn almost due south down the 
Harrisburg road made it apparent that the retreat 
had changed to an advance. What was left of 
Harrisburg — it having been burned by the Mexi- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 225 

cans — was reached on the 18th. Here the sick 
and inefficient were left with the baggage under a 
guard of seventy-five men, and the army proceeded 
down Buffalo Bayou towards the San Jacinto River. 
On the morning of the 20th the Mexicans came in 
sight, on their march back from New Washington. 

During; the remainder of the 20th and until the 
afternoon of the 21st the opposing forces were 
encamped facing each other, the Texans along the 
right bank of Buffalo Bayou, and the Mexicans on 
the edge of a prairie stretching from the bayou 
southward. On the 20th a skirmish was brought 
on by an attempt to capture a piece of artillery 
from the Mexicans, but it led to nothing more seri- 
ous than the wounding of two Texans — one of 
them mortally — and two Mexicans. On the morn- 
ing of the 21st Cos joined Santa Anna with a reen- 
forcement of about four hundred men. At noon 
on that day a council of war was held by Houston, 
and it was decided to defer attack till the next 
moi'ning ; but the men were still anxious to fight 
at once, and when their disposition had been ascer- 
tained through the officers, he gave the necessary 
order. 

Nothing further was needed to end the uncer- 
tainty and suspense. What followed was no battle, 
but a rout. The Mexicans were taken by surprise ; 
and though some of their officers behaved coura- 
geously enough, the troops made little resistance. 
The Texans charged to the war-cry, " Remember 
the Alamo ! " The pent-up fury and the despera- 



226 TEXAS 

tion they had been nursing through the memorable 
six weeks of the retreat beginning at Gonzales came 
out in one wild burst which did not need a second. 
Their onset was irresistible, and their vengeance 
terrible. They lost only two killed and twenty- 
three wounded, but the scattered and flying Mexi- 
cans were shot down like wild beasts, until most of 
them were finally gathered in one body near night- 
fall and formally surrendered by Colonel Almonte. 
Houston reported six hundred and thirty of them 
killed, two hundred and eight wounded, and seven 
hundred and thirty captured.^ Not more than three 
or four dozen of Santa Anna's army escaped. 

Santa Anna himself was captured the next day. 
Pending negotiations with the provisional govern- 
ment he agreed to order Urrea, who had moved 
forward and taken Brazoria, to retreat to Victoria, 
and the other divisions to Bejar. At Velasco, on 
May 14, he signed two treaties, one open and one 
secret, by which he agreed to cease hostilities 
against Texas, to send the Mexican troops out of 
the country, and to do what he could to secure the 
recognition of the independence of Texas with 
boundaries not to reach beyond the Rio Grande. 
General Filisola, who had succeeded Santa Anna 
as commander-in-chief of the Mexican forces, rati- 
fied the treaty on May 14, and a few days later the 
last of the invaders had left Texas. 

^ It seems that the wounded were counted also among' the pris- 
oners, and that the aggregate should be only thirteen hundred and 
sixty. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 227 

While this campaign was in progress, General 
Gaines, who was in command of the United States 
troops at Fort Jesup near Natchitoches, moved up 
to the Sabine with a large force, and would doubt- 
less have crossed into Texas if he had been able 
to find occasion ; but the Indians were too quiet to 
justify the step, and it was therefore not taken. 

The victory of San Jacinto was followed by a 
general outburst of rejoicing among the Texans. 
It was regarded as a great deliverance, and the 
anniversary of the battle became, in disregard of 
that of independence, the special holiday of the 
Republic. Of late years, however, the claims of 
Independence Day — March 2 — have been recog- 
nized, and it is gradually becoming the great red 
letter day of the Texas calendar. 



CHAPTER XIX 

HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 

Texas can scarcely be said to have had an envi- 
able experience in its essay at independent self- 
government. During the ten years through which 
the effort lasted, the young Republic, with small 
available resources and smaller credit, lived a hand- 
to-mouth existence and was constantly threatened 
with bankruptcy. The trouble was heightened by 
the workinof of the clause in its constitution which 
made the president ineligible for a second succeed- 
ing term. The result of this was a see-saw policy, 
each administration reversing, to a greater or less 
extent, that of the one previous, and neutralizing 
its work. Every successive attempt to place the 
financial affairs of the government on a satisfac- 
tory basis was a failure, till the wise and stern 
economy of Houston's second term began to give 
relief. But during this period the new common- 
wealth was rapidly acquiring population, wealth, 
and political experience ; and had it continued to 
stand alone, it would likely soon have become a 
commanding figure in its role of nationality. At 
any rate, the fair-minded critic will not regard its 
infant stumblings too severely. 



HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 229 

A general election to ratify the constitution and 
to elect officials for the government thereunder was 
held in September, 1836. The ratification was 
unanimous. Houston, Austin, and Henry Smith 
were candidates for the presidency ; but the de- 
liverance wrought for Texas by the battle of San 
Jacinto had silenced the complaints against the 
commander-in-chief and made him a popular idol, 
while the obligations of the Anglo-Americans to 
Austin were for the moment forgotten. Houston 
was therefore swept into the presidential chair by 
a wave of enthusiasm similar to that which had 
given him the victory in the field. He received 
over five thousand votes, while Smith had not quite 
seven hundred and fifty, and Austin less than six 
hundred. Lamar was elected vice-president ; and 
the new president, anxious that the fierce party 
strife which had divided the Texans hitherto should 
now be made to cease if possible, sought to harmon- 
ize the factions by appointing Austin secretary of 
state, and Smith secretary of the treasury. 

At the same election two important questions 
were submitted to the people : whether congress 
should have power to amend the constitution, and 
whether annexation to the United States was de- 
sired. There were only two hundred and twenty- 
three votes in favor of congressional constitution 
mending, and only ninety-one against annexation. 
In this way the Texans announced at the outset 
their jealousy of the delegation of sovereign powers, 
and their clear perception of their true interest and 
destiny. 



230 TEXAS 

Soon after the election congress met and organ- 
ized the government as adequately as, under the 
circumstances, it could be done. A seal and stand- 
ard were adopted, the first being little different 
from the present official seal of the State, while the 
second bore a single golden star on an azure ground ; 
but in 1839 the flag was changed to the familiar 
three bar arrangement, the blue vertical next the 
staff and bearing one white star, and the red and 
white of the same size as the blue but horizontal, 
with the white uppermost. The special feature of 
the judiciary was that the supreme court was made 
up of a chief justice and the judges of the district 
courts, four in number, sitting in banc. 

In organizing the new local government the three 
departments of B^jar, the Brazos, and Nacogdoches, 
into which Texas had been divided under Mexican 
rule, were neglected and disappeared ; while the 
Mexican municipalities became the counties of the 
Republic. 

One of the early measures of congress was the 
increase of the navy. Early in 1836 the Republic 
had purchased four vessels, which had been em- 
ployed in patrolling the coast and cutting off the 
supplies of the Mexicans during Santa Anna's 
invasion, and had proved themselves quite useful. 
The Texas government made provision at once for 
the purchase of additional ships, but they were not 
delivered until 1839. Long before this the original 
four were gone, — one sold, one captured, and two 
wrecked ; and for two years Texas was practically 



HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 231 

without a navy. From 1839 on, the new squadron 
was put now at one kind of service, now at another^ 
its most important operations being on the coast of 
Yucatan, which was then in revolt against the cen- 
tral government of Mexico. At length the failure 
of Commodore Moore, who was in command of the 
fleet, to obey an order of President Houston's led 
to a heated controversy between the president and 
the commodore. In the course of it the Texas 
congress passed a secret act authorizing the sale of 
the vessels ; but general opposition among the peo- 
ple prevented the execution of the measure, and 
about a year later the act was repealed. The 
Republic held on to its valued treasures of the 
marine till annexation, when they were passed 
over to the United States and became a part of its 
navy. 

Of course the army had to be kept up also, for 
another Mexican invasion might come at any time. 
Nearly all of the men who had fought under Hous- 
ton at San Jacinto were settlers, well established 
in Texas when the revolution began. There were 
few of these that cared to remain in service when 
the immediate danger was past, and if they alone 
had been available it might have been difficult to 
keep any considerable force in arms at all. But 
volunteers from the United States poured in, and 
the army soon rose to more than two thousand. It 
was a turbulent and troublesome body. When the 
government appointed General Lamar to take com- 
mand of it in the summer of 1836, the opposition 



232 TEXAS 

of the men forced liim to retire. Because of this 
insubordination, and in order to save expense, 
President Houston wisely furloughed about three 
fourths of them, and the remainder were put in 
charge of one thoroughly fit to command, — Albert 
Sidney Johnston ; but his appointment cost him an 
annoying wound received in a duel with his prede- 
cessor, General Felix Huston. The experiences, 
however, of the government were gradually teach- 
ing it ; and it soon began to manifest an apprecia- 
tion of the fact that the most useful branch of its 
military service was the corps of Indian fighters 
known as rangers. 

This body of troops was organized during the re- 
volutionary period, and it is still in existence. For 
defense against the Indians, the rangers were espe- 
cially fitted, and their efficiency for such purposes 
has been tested over and over again. When the 
revolution took place, the Indians were still scat- 
tered through the country occujiied by the whites, 
and their depredations and outrages were almost 
constant. This was true during the whole period 
of the Republic, but gradually the savages disap- 
peared from the interior and the troubles became 
confined to the frontiers. There, and especially 
along the northwestern, western, and southwestern 
borders, they have continued until within compara- 
tively recent years ; for the expansion of settlement 
in those directions has encountered the resistance 
of the fierce and strong Comanches and Apaches. 
Early in 1839, in order to protect the exposed dis- 



HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 233 

tricts, the ranger force was greatly strengthened, 
and the result fully justified the policy. 

Houston's policy in dealing with the Indians was 
friendly and conciliatory, while that of Lamar was 
hostile and strenuous ; but neither could keep them 
at peace. The conduct of the whites towards them 
was in general, from the Indian standpoint, highly 
aggressive and provoked constant retaliation. The 
Mexicans contributed to the trouble by seeking to 
incite the Indians to insurrection. In 1838 about 
three hundred of the Mexican settlers near Nacoo-- 
doches were joined by as many Indians in a rising 
which looked very dangerous for a time ; but before 
any mischief was done the insurgents dispersed to 
their homes. Their leader, Vicente Cordova, was 
said to be acting under a commission from the 
Mexican general Filisola. In 1839 one Manuel 
riores, who had made himself conspicuous by try- 
ing to stir up the Caddo Indians against the Tex- 
ans on the eve of the invasion of Santa Anna in 
1836, was commissioned as Mexican agent among 
the Texas Indians by General Canalizo, and was 
furnished with an elaborate set of instructions to 
friendly chiefs ; but the rashness of Flores brought 
his enterprise to an untimely — or timely — end. 
While he was on his way through the country some- 
where near San Antonio (B^jar) with a few com- 
panions, they murdered several persons ; whereupon 
they were pursued, Flores was killed, and corre- 
spondence revealing the scheme was captured. 

The most important tribe within the settled area 



234 TEXAS 

was that of the Cherokees. These had settled near 
Nacogdoches on lands granted them by the Spanish 
authorities, but over which they never enjoyed sov- 
ereignty. They had a little share in the Fredonian 
war. When the revolution came on, there was 
much fear that they would take part with the Mexi- 
cans, and a commission consisting of Sam Houston, 
John Forbes, and John Cameron was appointed by 
Governor Smith to effect a treaty with them. This 
was done early in 1836, but the senate afterwards 
refused to confirm the treaty. In the summer of 
1839, in consequence of the uneasiness produced by 
the revelations of Flores's mission and similar facts, 
and of murders charged to the Cherokees, the gov- 
ernment decided to expel them. A considerable 
force was sent against them, and, after a battle in 
which they lost about one hundred killed and 
wounded, they were driven out. 

The next year came serious trouble with the Co- 
manches. In February of that year, 1840, twelve 
of their chiefs met commissioners of the Republic 
in San Antonio to consider a treaty of peace. The 
Indians refused to surrender a number of white 
prisoners known to be in their hands, and a com- 
pany of soldiers was marched into the council cham- 
ber, and the chiefs were informed that they would 
be held until the captives were released. A fight 
ensued at once in which the chiefs, who were armed, 
were all killed, and a large number of Indians be- 
sides. In revenge the Indians burnt the town of 
Linnville, and raided the country round that place 



HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 235 

and Victoria, killing twenty-one persons ; but on 
their retreat they encountered a body of Texans, 
and were defeated and pursued many miles with 
heavy loss. A little later a force of about one 
hundred men under Colonel John Moore pene- 
ti'ated to the village of the Comanches and killed 
one hundred and twenty-eight of them and captured 
thirty-two. 

But the most serious matter that occupied the 
attention of the Republic was the living problem. 
If not rich nor altogether provident, the Texans 
were at least big-hearted, and they set up their 
national household on a very liberal scale. The 
president's salary was fixed at ten thousand dollars 
per year, with those of other officials in projDortion. 
The available resources of the government, how- 
ever, were small, and the receipts were inadequate 
to meet expenses. There was neither much wealth 
nor much trade to tax, and if the volume of foreign 
traffic had been far greater than it was, Texas could 
hardly have been expected to lay a heavy tariff on 
it. The ordinary means of raising or anticipating 
revenue were rapidly exhausted. Land scrip and 
bonds were put on the market in quantities as large 
as it would bear, and promissory notes of the gov- 
ernment were issued to an extent which necessity 
alone could justify. 

At the close of Houston's first administration, 
at the end of 1838, the total indebtedness of the 
Republic was nearly two million dollars, and its 
securities were already suffering marked deprecia- 



236 TEXAS 

tion. By the end of Lamar's administration, in 
December, 1841, the debt had risen to nearly seven 
and a half millions, while the market value of the 
obligations had fallen to twenty cents or less on the 
dollar. The severe economy and retrenchment of 
Houston's second term, 1841-1844, put the finances 
in much better condition ; but order was not fairly 
restored until the payment of ten million dollars 
to Texas by the United States on account of claims 
surrendered in the Compromise of 1850. 

The principal dependence of Texas for revenue 
was the public domain. This, however, was so vast 
in its extent that a genuine flood of immigration 
would have been required to develop its potential 
value. Then, too, the liberal policy of the govern- 
ment in granting lands so freely to its citizens, espe- 
cially those who had become such previous to the 
revolution, necessarily impaired to some extent the 
demand for what it had to sell. The extensive 
fraudulent traffic in certificates and claims that pre- 
vailed made the matter worse. It was a genuine 
harvest time for the speculator. Large bodies of 
land that now have enormous actual value were 
then secured, sometimes legally and sometimes ille- 
gally, for almost nothing. The management of its 
public domain by the Republic and State of Texas 
is a subject that tempts the writer on. It cannot be 
treated adequately in outline, but demands a whole 
book for itself. There has doubtless been preemi- 
nent wisdom in the liberality shown in grants to 
actual settlers, and in the use of the land for educa- 



\ 



HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 237 

tional purposes ; but, on the other hand, the policy- 
pursued has offered many opportunities for private 
gain at public cost. 

The fraudulent land traffic became the occasion, 
in east Texas, of a local quarrel known as that of 
the Regulators and Moderators, which began in 
1842 and ran through some years. It assumed at 
one time the proportions of a civil war, and Presi- 
dent Houston had to send five hundred men to 
suppress it. It was not very difficult to induce the 
forces of the two factions to disperse, but the pri- 
vate feuds born of the affair continued long there- 
after. 

It is in the educational policy of Texas that the 
promise and hopefulness of its civilization have been 
specially manifest. In the convention of 1832 a 
committee, of which Luke Lessassier of San Felipe 
was chairman, presented a report recommending a 
petition to the state government of Coahuila and 
Texas for a grant of land to Texas " as the foun- 
dation of a fund for the future encouragement of 
Primary Schools." A motion to lay the report 
on the table indefinitely was beaten by a vote of 
seventeen to thirty-four, and it was then adopted, 
apparently without opposition. The State did not 
make the grant, of course, and it is likely that the 
writer of the declaration of independence, adopted 
March 2, 1836, had the petition in mind when he 
formulated that famous clause in the indictment 
against Mexico which affirmed that " It had failed 
to establish any public system of education^ although 



238 TEXAS 

possessed of almost boundless resources (the pub- 
lic domain), and although it is an axiom in politi- 
cal science, that unless a people are educated and 
enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of 
civil liberty or the capacity for self-government." 
Evidence is now coming to light to show that the 
Mexican government had made some efforts along 
the line in which the Texans charged it with fail- 
ure ; nevertheless, it had failed, and this utterance 
is notable as showing that the Texans did not 
regard the subject with indifference. Further evi- 
dence of the fact is found in the constitution shaped 
by the same body as that which formulated the 
declaration. This constitution required congress 
to provide as early as possible for a system of 
public education. 

To President Lamar it is that Texas owes the 
actual provision for the system. In response to a 
recommendation in his message to the third con- 
gress of the Republic, an act was passed early in 
1839 granting three leagues of land to each county 
for the support of an academy and fifty leagues for 
the " establishment and endowment " of two uni- 
versities. The work thus begun has been pushed 
forward and widened, until the outcome has been 
the existing public school system of the State with 
the University of Texas at its head. 

The real significance of such expressions and 
acts by the Texans, and the light they throw on the 
nature of the social forces that have been at work 
in the making of Texas, may be better appreciated 



HOME AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 239 

when it is remembered that the Republic was the 
isolated far-away southern outpost of sentiment 
in favor of public education. Unfortunately, the 
Civil War set back the fruition of the sentiment 
several decades, and it is only a short while that the 
State has had an effective system of public schools 
at work ; but the traditions of Texas have pointed 
toward such a result from the very beginnings of 
the revolution. Considering all the conditions 
under which the educational policy of President 
Lamar was conceived and embodied in legislative 
enactments, there is no finer appeal to the noblest 
aspirations of a people in history. 

The confidence of the Texan s of the Republic 
in the future of their country is apparent in their 
location of its capital. At the time of the revo- 
lution the larger part of the population was settled 
below the Old San Antonio Road, between that and 
the coast. The first congress chose Houston, which 
had been laid out in 1836 on Buffalo Bayou in the 
settled region, as the seat of government till 1840. 
But in January, 1839, a bill was passed providing 
for the appointment of commissioners to locate the 
permanent capital, which was to be between the 
Trinity and Colorado rivers above the Old San 
Antonio Road. The commissioners laid out a town 
on the north bank of the Colorado at what was then 
almost the extreme northwest frontier, but which 
is southeast of the geographical centre of the 
existing Texas, and of its centre of population as 
well. The new town was named Austin, and the 



240 TEXAS 

choice of a site for it was a wise anticipation of 
growth which the event has fully justified. Presi- 
dent Houston, however, claimed that it was too 
much exposed to Mexican attack to be a safe place 
for the capital ; and in 1842, after the Vasquez raid 
on San Antonio,^ he called a special session of con- 
gress in Houston. The people of Austin were very 
indignant, and determined that they would not sur- 
render the archives. A company sent by President 
Houston succeeded in getting three wagon-loads of 
matter, but it was followed and forced to bring the 
books and papers back to Austin, where they were 
thenceforth kept. The subsequent sessions of the 
congress of the Republic were held at Washington 
on the Brazos ; but the archives would not go to 
the government, and the government had finally to 
return to the archives. The convention to consider 
the subject of annexation met in Austin, which 
remained the actual seat of government from that 
time on. 

1 See p. 246. 



CHAPTER XX 

FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 

It can scarcely be said that the new Republic 
bowed itself into the family of nations with great 
eclat, yet there was evidently a general feeling that 
its advent was a matter of the gravest importance. 
For the rest of the world, there were involved in 
recognizing it, and especially in the establishment 
of any connection with it, various perplexing prob- 
lems. Such action would be sure to affect the 
relations of the country taking it with Mexico on 
the one hand and the United States on the other. 
There was an opportunity for England or France 
to acquire great increase of influence in America 
by dealing skillfully with Texas, but the chance 
carried with it the danger of complications that 
might prove serious. The essential alternatives 
presented to the United States were either to 
acquire Texas, or to risk the possibility of its 
becoming a dangerous instrument of European 
powers. But the worst feature of the case, for 
England and for the United States in particular, 
was that in any attempt to settle upon a policy the 
irritating question of slavery always thrust itself 
forward. 



242 TEXAS 

As to Mexico, the revolution had already accom- 
plished the severance of Texas from that country, 
and there was not the remotest likelihood of restor- 
ing Mexican sovereignty over the Republic, either 
peaceably or by force. Of course it was also idle 
to talk of restoring friendly relations with Texas 
while the memory of Goliad and the Alamo was so 
fresh in the minds of the Anglo-Americans. Their 
vengeance was not satisfied by the slaughter at 
San Jacinto. It was only the resolute and coura- 
geous attitude of President Burnet, backed by the 
firm support of General Houston, that saved Santa 
Anna from that vengeance and allowed him to leave 
the country unharmed. Feeling among the Mexi- 
cans was hardly less intense. It was impossible for 
them to accord respectful treatment to the commis- 
sioners that came to Matamoras in the summer 
of 1836 with a passport from General Filisola to 
execute certain provisions of the treaty of Velasco. 
Under such conditions negotiations were useless, 
not to say impracticable. 

To dream of reconquering Texas was still more 
vain. This, however, the Mexican government re- 
fused to admit. It promptly repudiated the treaty 
of Velasco ; and though it was unable to initiate 
any effective further attacks on Texas, it kept up a 
series of threats, intrigues with the Indians, and 
petty raids, whose main result was to nourish an 
intense irritation among the people at whom they 
were directed. The treaty was not executed, and 
the impotent hostilities continued. 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 243 

The situation might have been worse if the set- 
tled areas of the two countries had been actually- 
contiguous ; but, as a matter of fact, they were 
separated from each other by an uninhabited strip 
spreading northeastward from the Rio Grande and 
varying in width from about one hundred and 
twenty miles at the coast to over six hundred at its 
upper end. This was not easy for hostile armies 
to cross, and it interfered greatly with retaliatory 
raiding. In December, 1836, the congress of Texas 
defined the boundary of the Republic on that side 
as extending from the mouth of the Rio Grande 
to its source, and thus including this strip; but 
neither government established actual jurisdiction 
over the whole of it. For the time, it did good 
service to both Texans and Mexicans in keeping 
them apart. 

Rumors sent out by the commissioners at Mata- 
moras, in the summer of 1836, of another Mexican 
invasion caused great alarm in Texas, but it was 
not attempted. There was really nothing to fear. 
The central government of Mexico was then too 
busy at home to think of measuring arms again 
with its redoubtable northern enemy. But a coun- 
ter expedition against Matamoras was planned by 
the Texans, and a considerable body of troops was 
gathered at San Patricio in preparation for it. 
For want of a navy, however, to cooperate by sea, 
the plan was given up. 

For about three years after the campaign ending 
at San Jacinto, there was no interchange of hostil- 



244 TEXAS 

ities between Texas and Mexico worth mention, 
but in 1839 a number of Texans were tempted to 
cooperate with the Mexican Federalists in a move- 
ment to establish a north Mexican confederation. 
The Federalists first sought to enlist the help of the 
Texas government by making, through their leader. 
General Anaya, certain promises — including prob- 
ably the recognition of the independence of Texas, 
in case of the Federalist success — on condition 
that they should be allowed to transport muni- 
tions of war through the territory of the Republic 
and recruit their forces therein. The proposition 
was rejected ; but a large number of Texans were 
induced to assist the Federalists against the Cen- 
tralists in northern Mexico in two campaigns, one 
in the latter part of 1839, and one in the summer 
and fall of 1840. Partly through the incapacity 
of the Mexican leaders and partly through their 
treachery, both were ineffectual. 

The next year an attempt was made to assert 
the jurisdiction of Texas over the country east of 
the upper Rio Grande to which it had laid claim 
in December, 1836. It took shape in an enter- 
prise whose name might easily be anticipated — 
the Santa F6 expedition. Santa F^, the capital of 
New Mexico, was the one important Mexican set- 
tlement east of the Rio Grande in its upper valley, 
and to get control of it would be practically making 
good the claims of Texas in that quarter. To be 
sure it was nearly one thousand miles from Austin 
on an air line, and much farther by any route it 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 245 

■would be practicable to follow, with hundreds of 
miles of desert to cross in any case ; but President 
Lamar favored the project, and the disbanding of 
the regular army in 1841, because of no appropri- 
ation for it, provided the necessary material for 
the organization of a force. Congress refused to 
pass a bill authorizing the expedition, but the pre- 
sident gave it his approval and sent an official 
communication to the authorities at Santa Fe in 
furtherance of its object. He left to them the 
decision as to whether they should acknowledge 
the authority of Texas or not, but expressed a 
desire that there might be a friendly commerce 
established in any event. In accordance with 
these expressions, the troops were ordered to be 
careful, in seeking to establish this authority, not 
to use force. 

The expedition ended most unfortunately. The 
force numbered two hundred and seventy, and the 
march was begun near Austin in June. As the 
party neared Santa Fe at the end of August, the 
weak and starving condition of the men induced 
the commander. General Hugh McLeod, to sepa- 
rate it into two divisions, and send the one includ- 
ing those who were strongest in advance, while 
the other followed slowly. A little more than two 
weeks later the foremost division was met by a 
force from Santa F^, and was induced by treach- 
erous misrepresentations on the part of one of its 
own number to surrender ; and soon afterwards 
the remaining body, which was in no condition to 



246 TEXAS 

do otherwise, also yielded itself on the promise of 
good treatment. The prisoners were all marched 
off to Mexico at once and closely confined. In 
the spring of the following year the foreign min- 
isters in the city of Mexico secured the release of 
such of them as could prove themselves citizens of 
the United States or of European nations ; and in 
the summer the others also were released, with one 
exception. This was the unfortunate Jose Antonio 
Navarro of San Antonio, long known and disliked 
by Santa Anna, who was again president of Mex- 
ico. Navarro was kept in prison or under surveil- 
lance for nearly three years longer, when he at last 
managed to escape. 

If the opinion of Kendall, member and historian 
of the expedition, is correct, the Mexicans at Santa 
Fe would have been generally willing to exchange 
governments ; but Governor Armijo of New Mex- 
ico, who was unwilling to give up the petty absolu- 
tism he was enjoying, aroused resistance to the 
Texans and defeated their purpose by misrepre- 
senting it. 

At last the Mexicans decided to take their turn 
at the game. On the 5th of March, 1842, General 
Vasquez with a force of five hundred men made a 
dash at San Antonio and captured the city, which 
he held two days. On the same day a small party 
of Mexicans occupied Refugio, and two days ear- 
lier another detachment had taken Goliad. These 
raids aroused great excitement in Texas, and in 
ten days there were thirty-five hundred troops in 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 247 

camp at San Antonio or marching thither. The 
Mexicans had in the mean time hurried back 
across the Rio Grande. The Texans were anxious 
to follow, but they were not equipped for a cam- 
paign in an enemy's country, and President Hous- 
ton informed the commanding general, Somervell, 
that such a campaign could not be undertaken in 
less than four months. This roused some talk of 
an immediate expedition without the sanction of 
the president, which led him to issue a proclama- 
tion asserting the national character of the war 
and the impropriety of such a movement. Gen- 
eral Somervell, on reaching the army on March 18, 
found the troops so insubordinate that he sought 
to turn over the command to the leader they pre- 
ferred. General Burleson ; but Burleson disbanded 
them. He could not refrain, however, from pub- 
lishing a protest against Houston's opposition to 
the invasion of Mexico. 

After a short interval came further raids. In 
July about seven hundred Mexicans attacked a 
body of some two hundred Texans on the Nueces, 
but were beaten off. In September General Woll 
led another attack on San Antonio. He had about 
a thousand men, and again the city was taken, but 
not without a fight this time. Twelve Mexicans 
were killed and twenty-nine wounded before the 
defense was overcome. There was no effort on the 
part of the invaders to reestablish themselves per- 
manently in the old town. Woll stayed only long 
enough to be drawn into an engagement with a force 



248 TEXAS 

of a little over two hundred Texans that had come 
hastily from Gonzales to meet him, in which he lost 
nearly one hundred killed and wounded ; but by an 
unfortunate mischance he was allowed to strike a 
severe blow in return. A company of fifty-three 
men from Fayette County under Captain Nicholas 
Dawson that was coming up to reenforce the Tex- 
ans was surrounded by the Mexicans, who, while 
keeping out of rifle range, mowed them down with 
grapeshot. Only fifteen of them escaped death, 
and five of these were wounded. Within two days 
after this fight Woll left San Antonio. He had 
come on the 11th of September, and his retreat 
began on the 20th. 

Again Texas was in a flame of excitement and 
angrer. President Houston issued a call for volun- 
teers to rendezvous at San Antonio preparatory to 
an invasion of Mexico. But he ordered General 
Somervell, who was then at Matagorda, to take 
command, while the troops were clamorous for 
Burleson. At Columbus on the Colorado, Somer- 
vell came on a body of two or three hundred men 
who were awaiting Burleson, and he disbanded them 
and went back to Matagorda himself. On receiving 
further orders, which were Sent him October 13, he 
proceeded to San Antonio, where he found about 
twelve hundred men in several different camps, 
poorly equipped, discontented, and disorganized. 
His own want of enthusiasm for an invasion of 
Mexico was evident, and the force dwindled greatly 
before a start was made. Finally, however, the 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 249 

inarch was begun November 18. The number of 
the men was then seven hundred and fifty. At 
Laredo two hundred of these abandoned the expe- 
dition. Somervell marched thence down the left 
bank of the Rio Grande till he came opposite the 
Mexican town of Guerrero. There he crossed over, 
but soon crossed back and issued an order to return 
to Gonzales and disband. Six captains with their 
companies refused to obey the order, notwithstand- 
ing which Somervell himself went back with about 
two hundred men, leaving something more than 
three hundred to continue the campaign they had 
declined to abandon. 

Those who were left behind organized by electing 
Colonel William S. Fisher to lead them. They 
then pushed on down the river to the town of Mier 
on the right bank, where they got into an engage- 
ment with a force of Mexicans six or seven times as 
large as their own. After inflicting great loss on 
their enemies they were finally induced to surrender. 
The number thus made prisoners was nearly two 
hundred and fifty. These were started to march 
by way of Matamoras to the city of Mexico. At 
the hacienda del Salado, about one hundred miles 
beyond Saltillo, they secured arms by a desperate 
rush, freed themselves from their guards, and 
started back to Texas. But after proceeding some 
distance along the roads they unfortunately took to 
the mountains, where hunger and thirst soon drove 
them to despair ; and as soon as they were overtaken 
they gave themselves up without resistance. They 



250 TEXAS 

were at once placed in irons and marched back to 
the hacienda del Salado, where they were forced to 
cast lots for the selection of one tenth of their num- 
ber to be executed. The seventeen victims on whom 
the lot fell were seated upon a log, blindfolded, and 
shot to death. Most of the survivors were impris- 
oned in castle Perote. Some of them died there, 
a few led by General Tom Green escaped, and the 
rest to the number of one hundred and seven were 
released by Santa Anna in 1844. 

A proposition to Santa Anna emanating from one 
of the Perote prisoners created for a moment a con- 
siderable stir. This man was James W. Robinson, 
who had been lieutenant-governor of Texas in 1835, 
and who, after Governor Smith had been deposed 
by the council, claimed the title of acting governor. 
The proposition included a plan for a reunion of 
Texas with Mexico. Robinson was released and 
sent as a commissioner to present the plan to the 
Texans. They gave it no consideration, but Rob- 
inson obtained his liberty. 

One other blow was aimed at Mexico by Texas, 
but it was warded off by the United States. In the 
spring of 1843 Colonel Jacob Snively, by authority 
of the government of the Republic, organized an 
expedition to intercept a party of Mexican traders 
returning from Missouri to Santa Fe. Snively 
camped with one hundred and eighty men on the 
right bank of the Arkansas River some distance 
below the crossing of the Santa Fd trail and waited 
for the traders ; but before they came, after he had 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 251 

engaged and defeated some Mexican troops who 
had come to guard them, his own force was sepa- 
rated by disagreement into two parties, and one of 
them started home, leaving him with only about one 
hundred men. When the traders arrived, they were 
under the protection of about two hundred United 
States cavalry led by Captain Philip S. Cooke. 
Captain Cooke gave Snively the rather remarkable 
information that he was on United States territory, 
and followed up his statement by taking from the 
Texans all their guns except ten, which he left 
them for protection against the Indians. In accord- 
an(3e with an offer he made them, about fifty of 
the men went back to Missouri with his command 
and made their way home from there. The others 
hurried on and joined the division that had previ- 
ously started back to Texas. The United States 
afterwards made reparation for this ill-judged act 
of Captain Cooke to the extent, at least, of paying 
for the guns he took. 

In the summer of 1843 Texas and Mexico were 
brought by the mediation of England into sufficient 
accord to agree to a cessation of hostilities until 
commissioners from the two nations could meet and 
arrange for an armistice pending negotiations for 
peace. The commissioners met and agreed to the 
armistice, but the president refused to ratify the 
agreement because it referred to Texas as still a 
part of Mexico, and in June, 1844, Santa Anna 
sent notice to the Texas government that hostilities 
were resumed. In point of fact, the further hostile 



252 TEXAS 

activity of Mexico consisted in massing troops on 
the Rio Grande and making preparation for the 
war that was threatened with the United States. 

The independence of Texas was no longer really 
in question. It had been recognized by the United 
States in March, 1837. France extended her re- 
cognition in 1839, Holland and Belgium in 1840, 
and Great Britain in 1842. As to the possibility 
of its reconquest and loss of the national status it 
had gained, that was too slight to be taken seriously 
into account at all. 

It might naturally be supposed that the relations 
of the Republic with England and France would be 
quite cordial, and for the most part they were so ; 
but a personal quarrel between the French minister 
and an Austin hotel-keeper caused a breach with 
the latter country lasting over a year or two. Of 
course the radical antislavery element in England, 
as well as in the United States, had little favor for 
Texas. 

The question of relations with the United States, 
however, was one of much greater importance ; but 
those relations, while clearly tending to one inev- 
itable result, ran a somewhat fitful and uncertain 
course. Commissioners were sent by President 
Burnet to Washington soon after the battle of San 
Jacinto to secure recognition, proffer annexation, 
and solicit the good offices of the government in 
dealing with Mexico. The only outcome of their 
efforts was the passage of resolutions by the two 
houses of Congress in favor of recognizing the iude- 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC 253 

pendence of Texas when she proved herself cer- 
tainly capable of sustaining it, and the appointment 
by President Jackson of an agent to visit that coun- 
try and report on its condition. This agent, Henry 
M. Morfit, made a report that was none too enthu- 
siastic, and Jackson transmitted it to Congress on 
December 21, 1836, accompanied by a message 
recommending the delay of recognition ; but, as 
already stated, favorable action was taken in about 
two months from the date of the message. 

Meanwhile the favor of the administration of 
President Jackson for Texas had led it to strain 
its relations of neutrality with Mexico. General 
Gaines, who was placed in command of the United 
States troops on the southwestern border of Louisi- 
ana early in 1836, and who continued in that office 
till after the middle of October the same year, was 
ordered to prevent any crossing of the border by 
either side ; and if in his judgment it should be 
necessary, he was to anticipate a hostile movement 
of the Indians by going into Texas as far as Nacog- 
doches. It was in accordance with these instruc- 
tions that he was encamped with a considerable 
force on the left bank of the Sabine when the battle 
of San Jacinto ended the Mexican advance.^ He 
did not enter Texas, because he did not consider 
that the circumstances under which he was to do 
so then existed. But in July, on heaving reports 
that led him to believe an Indian rising near the 
border was likely to occur, and that a Mexican 
1 See p. 227. 



254 TEXAS 

army was about to invade Texas, he sent a detach- 
ment that occupied Nacogdoches and remained there 
some time. 

For this act the United States government has 
been much criticised. The critics, however, have 
most of them refused to consider both sides of the 
question. There is not space to discuss it here ; 
but he that is willing to see the strictly technical 
application of international law yield to the urgent 
demands of humanity will be very slow to condemn 
the instructions or the act. What the criticism 
would have been if the instructions to Gaines had 
been such as to prevent him from advancing to 
protect the mass of women and children who fled 
before the Mexican invasion in March and April, 
1836, from the Indian attack that was then feared, 
can hardly be imagined ; and the government may 
well have been pleased to incur what it did rather 
than this. 

The relations of Texas with the United States, 
however, turned mainly on the question of annexa- 
tion, and this will be considered in the next chap- 
ter. 



CHAPTER XXI 

ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT 

The vote of the Texans in September, 1836, on 
the question of annexation was practically unani- 
mous ; but, tempting as the offer was, it involved too 
many complications for the United States govern- 
ment to accept it at once. The gravest of these con- 
sisted in the vast expansion of slave territory that 
the acquisition of Texas would bring and the new life 
it would give to slavery in the United States. The 
overture came at a time when the issue between the 
defenders of this institution and its enemies was just 
beginning to be fierce and irreconcilable. The es- 
tablishment of William Lloyd Garrison's " Libera- 
tor," the Nat Turner insurrection in Virginia, and 
the inception of the abolition movement coming in 
quick succession in the early '30's were partly symp- 
toms and partly causes of the growing intensity of 
feeling on the subject. This feeling, so ominous of 
sectional division and of civil war, was showing 
itself in Congress. At the very time when Texas 
was in the agony of revolution, a struggle between 
the national representatives of the slaveholding 
States and those who spoke for the growing spirit 
of abolition was taking place in the capitol at 



256 • TEXAS 

Washington. The ground of the contest was 
shifted from slavery itself to the right of petition, 
and in the clamors of the dispute that followed, the 
voice of slaveholding Texas offering annexation was 
listened to by one party with hesitation and by the 
other with scorn. The friendship of Jackson could 
do no more than secure recognition for the new 
republic, and Van Buren was too wary to commit 
himself to the policy of annexing it. Not until John 
Tyler sat in the seat made vacant by the death of 
William Henry Harrison did the auspicious moment 
come for a new effort at the consummation of the 
measure. 

Early in tlie year 1843 the Texas government 
intimated to that of the United States that overtures 
for annexation would be favorably received. The 
news that the subject was being agitated at Wash- 
ington produced no little uneasiness both in England 
and in Mexico. In order to avert if possible the 
acquisition of Texas by the United States, the Brit- 
ish charges d'affaires in Texas and in Mexico 
worked hard to bring about peace between the two 
countries ; but the pride of Mexico still prevented 
her from accepting the armistice, and the vain 
negotiations were, as already indicated, followed by 
a declaration of renewed hostilities in June, 1844. 
While the negotiations were in progress, in August, 
1843, the Mexican government defined its own atti- 
tude concerning annexation by announcing that it 
would regard an act of the United States Congress 
to that effect as a declaration of war against Mex- 



ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 257 

ico. This threat was of small consequence except 
in so far as it went to justify the aggressive attitude 
of the United States in the war that actually came 
a little later. But the part that Great Britain might 
be playing in the affairs of Texas was a matter of 
much greater importance ; and the fear of a possi- 
ble danger to American interests growing out of 
the relations between those two countries gradually 
disseminated itself throughout the Union, and gave 
a powerful impulse to the policy of accepting the 
gift of Texas proffered by its own people. 

The announcement of the Texas government that 
it was still not averse to annexation if the United 
States would reopen the question led to quiet over- 
tures from President Tyler, which were followed up 
until they resulted in a treaty to that end. This 
treaty was laid before the Senate in April, 1844. 
Had it been fathered by a President less unfortu- 
nate in his political relations than Tyler, it might 
have been ratified ; but with the solid opposition 
of the Whigs, now completely alienated from him, 
and only partial support from the Democrats, over 
whom he had triumphed in his election, it was de- 
feated by the decisive vote of thirty-five against 
and only sixteen for it. The consummation that 
the President wished so devoutly was for the time 
deferred. 

But he had only to wait ; the gods were with 
him — Jupiter and Minerva, said some, while others 
averred that it was only Mars and Mercury, but at 
any rate the strongest. He had forced the question 



258 TEXAS 

on the politicians in such a way that it became the 
principal issue in the next campaign. True it was 
not presented without complications; but taking 
into consideration all facts that might account for 
the result as not expressive of the popular will 
towards Texas, — the unfortunate explanations of 
Clay, the defection of the abolitionists from the 
Whigs in New York, and what not, — there seems 
little room to doubt that the election really turned 
upon it. The Democrats won, and the matter was 
practically settled. The platform of the victorious 
party had declared unequivocally for annexation ; 
its candidate, Polk, had stood firmly and consist- 
ently thereon; and when the votes had been counted, 
the acquisition of Texas was only a question of 
method and of time. 

Of a very short time, it proved ; but if the friends 
of annexation had not changed their method, the 
result would have been deferred much longer. It 
would have had to wait, in fact, on the slow and 
uncertain process of change in the composition of 
the senate, and would probably have not come at 
all. It was clear that no treaty in accordance with 
the Democratic policy could command a two thirds 
vote of that body ; but the triumphant Democracy 
was both fearful and impatient of delay. So the ex- 
pedient of making the offer to Texas by a joint reso- 
lution of the two houses of Congress was adopted. 
There was strong opposition to this method among 
the senators as unconstitutional, and as involving 
a breach of senatorial prerogative ; but their objec- 



ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 259 

tlons were at last sufficiently overcome to secure a 
vote for the resolution of twenty-seven to twenty- 
five. The House adopted it as it came from the 
Senate by a vote of nearly two thirds. This was on 
February 28. The next day President Tyler signed 
the resolution and thus anticipated Polk in the fruit 
of his victory. 

The final decision now devolved on Texas. What 
that decision would be must have appeared, to one 
not entirely familiar with the undercurrents of con- 
temporary Texas politics, as dangerously uncertain. 
It seemed as though the cautious delay of the 
United States government in accepting the Repub- 
lic's gift of itself might involve the complete loss of 
it. President Anson Jones, who succeeded Houston 
in December, 1844, was considered at the time as 
opposed to annexation, and in his inaugural address 
he avoided all reference to the subject, nor did 
the ninth congress of the Republic, whose regular 
session ended February 3, 1845, take any action 
relative thereto. But the passage of the joint reso- 
lution of the United States congress put a different 
face on the matter. A proclamation was issued by 
President Jones on May 5 calling a convention to 
pass on the offer, and a special session of the Texas 
congress to do the same and also ratify the call. 

The president, however, provided two strings for 
the Texas bow. A revolution in Mexico had driven 
Santa Anna again from power and placed the gov- 
ernment in the hands of the Federalist general Jose 
Joaquin Herrera. In March, 1845, Ashbel Smith, 



260 TEXAS 

the Texas secretary of state, signed the prelimina- 
ries of a treaty of peace by which Mexico would 
recognize the independence of Texas if that Repub- 
lic would pledge itself against annexation. The 
treaty was agreed to by the Mexican government in 
May, and on June 4 President Jones issued a pro- 
clamation announcing the cessation of hostilities. 
Now the congress, which was to meet June 16, 
had a pair of alternatives ready for its consideration. 
It could either have peace with Mexico and forego 
annexation, or it could have annexation and war. 

The choice was easy, and it was soon made. On 
June 21 the senate unanimously rejected the treaty 
with Mexico. .June 23 both houses voted, also 
unanimously, in favor of annexation. July 4 the 
convention called for the purpose met and passed 
an ordinance to that effect. It is said that Richard 
Bache, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin, who was 
a delegate from Galveston, voted against the ordi- 
nance, but his name appears in the list of those who 
signed it. The ordinance, together with a constitu- 
tion framed by the convention, was submitted to 
the people, and on October 13 both were ratified 
by a vote that was also nearly unanimous. What- 
ever uncertainty and hesitation in dealing with the 
subject there may have been in the United States, 
Texas knew her own mind, and expressed it with 
unmistakable emphasis. 

It is worthy of note in passing that according 
to the terms of the resolution by which the United 
States made the offer, Texas was to retain possession 



ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 261 

of its public lands. Thus the State enjoyed the 
oj)j)ortunity and was put to the necessity of organiz- 
ing a system and shaping a policy of management 
for the vast domain yet remaining in the hands of 
its government ; and no feature of its history is 
more instructive and more interesting than the 
development of this policy. 

The annexation of Texas without the exclusion 
of slavery was a severe blow to the radical aboli- 
tionists, who advocated the impracticable policy of 
destroying the institution at once, and it was by no 
means to the liking of the conservative and grow- 
ing class, who wished to stop the spread of what 
they regarded as the social and economic plague 
spot of the nation. These constituted at the time 
a secure majority of the votes of the United States. 
But it was clear that Texas could not be had ex- 
cept as a slave State. Imperious and overwhelm- 
ing natural influences determined this. Among 
those, however, who would have barred slavery, if 
they coiild, with an iron wall in its existing limits, 
there were enough who saw the supreme importance 
of acquiring Texas to turn the scale in favor of 
accepting it, slavery and all. 

As to the war between the United States and 
Mexico which followed hard upon annexation, that 
lies mainly beyond the province of this work ; but 
one of the questions connected with it concerned 
Texas especially, and it demands some attention 
here. This is the question relative to the proper 
boundaries of the Republic. On the threshold of 



262 TEXAS 

the discussion, it may be well to say that the too 
common explanation of the Mexican war as the 
outcome of a boundary dispute is superficial and 
misleading. It may be conceded that the attitude 
of President Polk was more aggressive than that of 
a chief magistrate backed by the power of a strong 
nation should have been towards one relatively so 
weak ; but even if chivalry could be expected to con- 
trol the conduct of governments that are in actually 
hostile relations, — which it cannot, — it does not 
follow by any means that the war was, in the essence 
of the matter, over a disputed boundary. The 
Mexican congress had asserted that annexation 
would be regarded as a declaration of war by the 
United States, and this assertion had never been 
withdrawn, but had been followed up by the sever- 
ance of diplomatic relations — the natural prelimi- 
nary to war. That Mexico was not strong enough 
to make her threats really dangerous has nothing 
to do with the technical asjjects of the question. 
As to its moral aspects, if the President deserves 
any criticism for preci^Ditating the conflict, — and 
the writer does not think him beyond it, — this is 
not because the conduct of Mexico, either in diplo- 
macy or war, had until then been such as to chal- 
lenge the courtesy or forbearance of other nations. 
Concerning the boundary, it must be said that 
Texas as a province or political division of Mexico 
did not touch the Rio Grande at any point. The 
line that divided it from the state of Tamaullpas, 
next the Gulf, was the Nueces. It was separated 



ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 2G3 

from Coahuila, further inland, by the Medina, some 
eighteen miles southwest of San Antonio. Its com- 
mon boundaries with Chihuahua and New Mexico 
to the west and northwest were still more remote 
from the Rio Grande. Even if it be assumed — 
which can hardly be considered as proved — that 
the Louisiana Purchase included Texas with its 
western boundary at that river, this gave the Dis- 
ti-ict. Department, or Republic no claim to such a 
limit after the treaty of 1819. According to the 
treaty of Velasco made with Santa Anna while he 
was a prisoner, the Mexican army was to retire 
beyond that river, and the limits of Texas were 
not to be fixed west of it ; but the obligation of 
such a treaty has been much impugned. It was 
agreed to by Filisola, Santa Anna's successor in 
command, who still had a considerable force under 
him, and whose ratification should have meant 
something ; but it was repudiated by the Mexi- 
can government. The act of the Texas congress 
passed December 19, 1836, by which it marked 
out its own limits as at the Rio Grande from 
its mouth to its source, was in fact no more than a 
claim to be made good by force. Texas had failed, 
however, to establish its jurisdiction over such 
Mexican settlements as lay along that river on its 
hither side. Therefore President Polk was hardly 
correct in stating in his message to Congress after 
Taylor's report of the first skirmish — which took 
place on the north bank of the Rio Grande near 
its mouth — that the blood of citizens of the United 



264 TEXAS 

States had been shed " on our own soil." But to 
grant that he was mistaken on this point is by no 
means the final word as to the ethics of the war. 

The conflict could have but one result. Mexico, 
torn by internal dissension as usual, was unable to 
gather her strength for a defensive effort, and she 
was soon overrun. The war cost her not only the 
strip claimed by Texas between its old provincial 
boundaries and the Rio Grande, but all the northern 
part of her dominion, a belt of about ten degrees 
in width running west from Texas and the line of 
1819. Such was the penalty which she paid by the 
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 for the pride 
and want of wisdom which prevented her from fore- 
stalling the conflict with an aggressive and power- 
ful neighbor by timely concessions. That she was 
nominally paid for the territory she lost did little 
to moderate the bitterness of the compulsion. 

The limits of Texas, however, were not yet finally 
determined. Those which it had laid out for itself 
by the act of December 19, 1836, — the line of 
1819 on the east and north, and on the southwest 
and west the Rio Grande from its mouth to its 
source and thence north to latitude 42°, — had been 
accepted by President Polk and made the basis of 
his policy at the opening of the war with Mexico, 
but a convention of the people of New Mexico in 
October, 1848, adopted an antislavery petition to 
Congress, in which it protested against the recogni- 
tion of the Texas claim. The question of the lim- 
its of Texas became inseparably bound up with the 



ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 265 

struggle over the expansion of slavery, which was 
just about to enter its acute and hopeless stage. 
Several other questions related in different ways to 
the same general subject were pressing for answers, 
and they were gathered in a group and disposed of 
all together — though in separate bills — by what 
is known as the Compromise of 1850. 

This adjustment cut off about one third of what 
the Republic had claimed by the statute defining 
its boundaries. The excised territory included 
parts now lying in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kan- 
sas, Colorado, and Wyoming. The northern limit 
given to the State of Texas was the line of the 
Missouri Compromise. It was anticipated, when 
the struggle over annexation occurred, that Texas 
would be cut into several States in order to pre- 
serve the balance in the United States senate be- 
tween the slavery and antislavery interests, and the 
joint resolution of the congress at Washington by 
which the offer was made provided that none lying 
north of the line referred to should be allowed to 
legalize slavery. Had the occasion to create these 
new States ever arisen, it would probably have 
brought serious trouble ; but the march of events 
was too rapid for any such contingency. With 
the uncertain future then in view, and the heated 
state of popular feeling that required constant and 
difficult compromise, it was perhaps a wise precau- 
tion that cut off the part from which slavery would 
have been excluded on organizing it for separate 
statehood. 



266 TEXAS 

The claims of New Mexico were satisfied by giv- 
ing it the district included between the Rio Grande, 
the line of 32° north, and that of 103° west. This 
takes in the capital of the Territory and consider- 
ably more than half its area as its boundaries have 
been finally established. 

In payment for this contraction of the boundaries 
she claimed, and in consideration of ceding to the 
general government her shij)s, forts, custom-houses 
with the revenue therefrom, etc., Texas was to re- 
ceive from the United States ten millions of five 
per cent, bonds, half of which were reserved until 
the holders of Texas bonds should file with the 
United States government releases from all obli- 
gations on account of their claims. The first five 
millions was paid in 1852. In 1855 the half that 
had been reserved by the national government, 
together with two million seven hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars appropriated to reimburse the 
State for expenditures for frontier defense, was 
divided among the holders of Texas obligations 
who presented them at the Treasury in Washing- 
ton and signed a release of all claims against the 
United States. This gave the creditors of Texas 
about eighty cents on the dollar for the various cer- 
tificates of indebtedness they held. The Texas 
legislature had already scaled the debt much more 
severely, but not all classes of obligations in the 
same proportion. The act of the United States 
congress provided that the proposed distribution 
of the seven million seven hundred and fifty thou- 



ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARIES 267 

sand should be ratified by the Texas legislature 
before going into effect. The governor of Texas 
first submitted the proposition to the people of the 
State, who rejected it ; but the legislature, which 
still did not feel itself precluded from taking up 
the subject, was more compliant and approved 
the plan. In the distribution the State received 
about three hundred thousand dollars which it had 
already paid on its debt, and the effect of these 
indemnities was to put it in most healthy financial 
condition. 

One more adjustment fixed the boundaries of 
Texas as they now exist, and that was the pre- 
cise determination of the line of 1819. The line 
as agreed upon by the United States and Spain 
was to run up the Sabine River from its mouth 
to thirty-two degrees north, thence north to Red 
River, thence west to the hundredth meridian, etc. 
But Red River has two branches, which join some 
distance east of the meridian named, and there 
was a question as to which was the main stream. 
Texas claimed the north fork ; and until the mat- 
ter was finally adjudicated, exercised jurisdiction 
in fact over the district included between the 
meridian and the two forks, which was known as 
Greer County. In 1896, however, a decree of the 
supreme court of the United States fixed the bound- 
ary of Texas at the south fork, and the State in 
this way lost one of its finest counties. 

Yet, while Texas has never relished the loss of 
Greer County, the State can scarcely be regarded 



268 TEXAS 

as undersized. No other in the Union can ap- 
proach it in extent of territory. It is also true, 
in a general sense, that the poorest parts of it are 
those which have been acquired by the most doubt- 
ful claims. 



CHAPTER XXII 

STATEHOOD 

For the relinquishment of independence Texas 
was not without compensation. Her revenue from 
customs had passed to the United States, but along 
with it had gone the burden of the diplomatic and 
military establishments incident to nationality. 
The payment to Texas provided for by the Com- 
promise of 1850 was partly in the nature of indem- 
nity for the loss incurred by the transfer of the 
duties ; and this, it has been seen, was the main 
element in bringing order to the finances of the 
State. The expenditures of the Republic for mili- 
tary purposes had been quite small for some years 
previous to annexation, but how long they could 
have remained so if the independent status had con- 
tinued is exceedingly doubtful. The greatest gain, 
however, lay in getting rid of the question of foreign 
relations. Delicate and serious as this question 
was for the great powers in their dealings with the 
Republic, it was infinitely more so for the Repub- 
lic in dealing with them. Now it was definitely 
settled that Texas should be neither the catspaw 
nor the protege of England or of France ; tliat 
she should not be called on to sustain her dignity 



270 TEXAS 

against overwhelming physical odds ; and that she 
need not humble herself to obtain the favor of her 
old enemy Mexico while the asperities engendered 
by the revolution were yet so fresh. So much of 
the diplomatic problem as remained was relegated 
for solution to the government at Washington. 
What the result was in the case of Mexico has been 
seen, and it was certainly unfortunate ; but the 
responsibility does not belong to Texas. 

Prosperity soon visited the State. Its abundant 
natural resources began to make themselves appar- 
ent. Immigration flowed in, and wealth began to 
increase with leaps and bounds prophetic of the 
extraordinary industrial development of later days. 
In 1836 the total Anglo-American population of 
the Republic was probably less than thirty thou- 
sand. In 1847, when the first census of the State 
was taken, the white population was, in round 
numbers, one hundred thousand, and the number 
of slaves was thirty-five thousand. The total pop- 
ulation in 1850 was about two hundred thousand, 
and in 1860 about three times as many. The total 
value of property assessed in 1856 was one hun- 
dred and sixty-one million dollars, and in 1857 it 
was one hundred and eighty-three millions. For 
the six years from 1852 to 1858 nearly all the taxes 
collected in the State were given to the counties 
for local use, the expenses of the state government 
being paid meanwhile out of the indemnity re- 
ceived from the United States. 

In the ""reat stream of immijrration that flowed 



STATEHOOD 271 

into Texas during the fifteen years of statehood 
previous to the Civil War, as well as during the 
ten years of the Republic, there came a few whose 
coming was due to the fact that they had com- 
mitted some offense against the law. It is scarcely 
worth while to say that there were not enough of 
this class to determine the character of the popu- 
lation in any given locality ; but extravagant sto- 
ries were told about them, and jokes concerning 
them were circulated in Texas, and on the outside 
the stories and jokes were taken quite seriously. 
In this way the reputation of the State suffered no 
little, and very unjustly. As a matter of fact it 
would be hard to find a case in which the reign of 
law has been so quickly and so firmly established 
in the midst of frontier conditions. 

It was possible for the United States to protect 
the State from invasion, but Texas had an enemy 
that was practically within her gates, with whom it 
was much more difficult to deal. This was the 
Indian. The tribes inside the limits of the State 
on the north were friendly, but those of the Indian 
Territory made frequent raids into the covmtry 
south of Red River, and were very troublesome. 
Of course the most annoying Indians, now as of 
old, were the Comanches, along the western fron- 
tier, who liked especially to kill and scalp Mexi- 
cans, but were willing on occasion to accept a Texas 
victim. The interior was protected with tolerable 
effectiveness from their ravages by the advance 
line of settlements, yet at no little cost to the settle- 



272 TEXAS 

ments themselves. They were the bare hand with 
which the deadly blows of savagery must be received 
and warded off. The State employed its ranger 
force to good advantage, but it is difficult to pre- 
vent or anticipate an Indian raid, and the line of 
exposure was several hundred miles in length. 

The circumstances invited the application of the 
system of colonizing the Indian on reservations. 
The State granted the necessary lands, and in 1855 
two colonies were established on reservations sit- 
uated the one on the upper course of the Brazos 
River, and the other on one of its tributaries 
known as Clear Fork. At the Brazos agency were 
gathered about eight hundred Indians of various 
tribes who had long been in contact with the 
whites, and whose original locations were now 
within the settled districts, while on the Clear 
Fork, considerably further west, were placed about 
three hundred Comanches. The colonies appear, 
from the reports of the agents, to have prospered 
beyond reasonable anticipation. The Indians on 
the reservations, who in 1858 amounted in all to 
nearly fifteen hundred, were said to be rapidly 
acquiring the arts of civilized life. A number of 
them were enlisted in the ranger service and had 
made themselves very useful. It seemed for a 
time that the amount expended by the United 
States government on these Indians, which reached 
about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 
four years, would be well repaid in tangible good 
results. 



STATEHOOD 273 

But unfortunately there were on tlie reserva- 
tions a few who could not give up the habit of 
horse-stealing and plundering, and who broke away 
from time to time and joined with roving Indians, 
and sometimes white men, in committing depreda- 
tions. This greatly exasperated the settlers in the 
neighborhood, who had at best too little patience 
with the Indians, and they soon began to insist 
that none of them should leave the reservations at 
all. In December, 1858, a party from the Brazos 
reservation which was encamped beyond its limits 
on the river was surprised by a band of whites and 
nearly all killed or wounded. The other Indians 
were much angered by this event and declared 
their intention to be avenged. The whites made 
counter threats and organized and armed them- 
selves in anticipation of an outbreak of hostilities. 
Finally in 1859 the situation became so serious 
that the Indians were moved across Red River into 
the Territory. From this time on, the depreda- 
tions along the northern frontier became specially 
frequent and troublesome. 

Towards the Mexicans remaining within the 
limits of the Republic the feeling of the Texans 
was scarcely better than towards the Indians. 
They were charged with various crimes and wrong- 
doing, such as stealing horses and exercising a 
mischievous influence among the slaves. In 1856 
a conspiracy among the negroes of Colorado County 
to rise, massacre their owners, and make their way 
to Mexico was discovered, and the participants 



274 TEXAS 

were severely punished, two being whipped to 
death and three hanged ; and the Mexicans in that 
county, who were said to be generally implicated, 
were driven out, as were also those in Matagorda 
County. In another notable instance race animos- 
ity was reenforced by industrial competition in 
such a way as to bring about a series of outrages 
known as the " Cart War." This was in 1857. In 
that year the Texas teamsters who were engaged 
in carrying freight from the coast to San Antonio, 
irritated by the success of the Mexican cartmen in 
drawing all the business with their profit-killing 
rates, began to attack the trains of their unfor- 
tunate rivals, kill the drivers, and sometimes even 
carry off the valuable freight. This was kept up 
until the Mexican minister at Washington ad- 
dressed a remonstrance to the United States gov- 
ernment, saying that seventy-five of the cartmen 
had been killed, and many others driven from their 
homes. Governor Pease sent a special message to 
the legislature recommending remedial measures ; 
and the matter was taken up by the senate, but 
was not pushed to a conclusion. At length, how- 
ever, when the outrages that had been perpetrated 
on the cartmen were extended to the citizens of the 
counties where they had occurred, the evil found a 
very effective remedy. The citizens began to hang 
the perpetrators, and the mischief was soon stopped. 
Shortly after this a reign of terror was inaugu- 
rated on the lower Rio Grande, from Laredo to 
Brownsville, by the Mexican, Juan Cortina. He 



STATEHOOD 275 

began his career by combining with his business 
of stockman that of cattle-stealer and bandit. In 
1859, in order to increase his following, he began 
to represent himself as the avenger of the wrongs 
of the native Mexicans, and he had about him at 
one time five or six hundred of them. In Septem- 
ber, 1859, he and his men took temporary posses- 
sion of Brownsville and killed a peace officer and 
several other citizens who became involved in 
resistance to them. Within the next two months 
two successive expeditions were sent against him, 
but both retreated without accomplishing anything. 
In December, however, he was attacked by a com- 
bined force of United States regulars and Texas 
rangers amounting to about three hundred, and 
was defeated and driven into Tamaulipas. 

Such disorders were natural to a new and still 
unadjusted social organization including diverse 
and antagonistic elements. There were, however, 
other activities and tendencies prevailing in the life 
of the State that were full of promise. One of 
these appeared in the gradual development of a 
system of free public education. The provisions 
of the constitution of 1836 concerning education 
and the act of January, 1839, in accordance there- 
with have already been mentioned. This act was 
followed up by another in February, 1840, provid- 
ing for a board of school commissioners with power 
to organize school districts, inspect schools, give 
certificates to teachers, etc. The educational pro- 
visions of the first constitution of the State, adopted 



276 TEXAS 

in 1845, showed a distinct improvement over those 
of the constitution of 1836 in substituting for the 
general and indefinite terms of the latter an 
explicit and positive mandate to the legislature to 
" establish free schools throughout the State, and 
. . . furnish means for their support by taxation 
on property." By the same provisions, one tenth 
of the annual revenue of the State from taxation 
vs^as set aside as a perpetual free school fund, which 
was never to be diverted to other uses, and which, 
until the legislature should provide for the estab- 
lishment of the schools, was to remain charged 
against the State. The alienation of lands granted 
for educational purposes to counties or other politi- 
cal divisions in the State was also forbidden. 

The full significance of this feature of the con- 
stitution of 1845 could hardly have been understood 
at the time, but he that now looks back upon it in 
the light of subsequent history can scarcely fail to 
see in it a landmark of progress. It was a prophecy 
of good that until then had come to no State so far 
south. It was the announcement that, in spite of 
the social and industrial evils of slavery, Texas was 
to set her face towards the rising sun. 

The disordered condition of the State's affairs 
and the absorption of public interest by the urgent 
demands for settlement of boundary and financial 
questions operated to prevent action in obedience 
to the constitution of 1845 for nearly ten years. 
But the Compromise of 1850 and the readjusting 
act of the legislature in 1852 brought a little 



STATEHOOD 277 

breathing-spell and a period of relative quiet, in 
which there soon came a revival of interest in pub- 
lic education. This expressed itself in the act of 
January 31, 1854. The act of 1854 was an elabo- 
ration and an improvement of that of 1840. It 
set aside as a permanent educational fund two mil- 
lion dollars of the five per cent, bonds received 
from the United States, and provided that the in- 
terest thereon should be distributed among the 
counties in proportion to the number of free white 
children between six and sixteen years of age. It 
required the division of the counties into school 
districts, in each of which the people must pro- 
vide a good and properly furnished school-building 
before they could obtain their share of the public 
money. This money was to be expended only in 
payment of the teachers, and the balance due, over 
and above the amount of the public fund, was to 
be paid by the patrons of the school, each contribut- 
ing in proportion to the number of pupils he sent 
and the time they were in actual attendance. 

While this law was crude and imperfect, it offered 
a good working basis for the development of a sys- 
tem of public instruction, and during the next few 
years there was considerable progress along that 
line. The main trouble was that the available 
fund was too small, and that it left too much de- 
pendent on the uncertain contingency of private 
cooperation. In 1860 there were in existence, 
under the provisions of this law, about twelve hun- 
dred semi-public schools ; but only about one fifth 



278 TEXAS 

of the cost of their maintenance was met by public 
funds. The day of the free school proper in Texas 
had not yet come. 

But the healthy strength of the sentiment in 
favor of public education is perhaps most strik- 
ingly manifest in the measures looking toward the 
establishment of a state university. The act of 
1839, by which fifty leagues of land were appro- 
priated for the purpose of establishing two colleges 
or universities has already been mentioned. No 
doubt the reason that two were provided for was 
that it was considered necessary to have one in the 
eastern part and one in the western. It was, how- 
ever, subsequently claimed that the intention of the 
law was to provide one institution of higher edu- 
cation for men, and another for women. What- 
ever may have been intended, the idea of having 
two such colleges or universities was abandoned 
for that ©f one, which was on its organization made 
coeducational. The act of February 11, 1858, was 
a more definite step towards realizing the plan of 
a state university. This provided for the creation 
of an endowment for an institution of higher learn- 
ing by setting apart for the purpose one hundred 
thousand dollars of the United States bonds in the 
treasury, and every tenth of the alternate sections 
of land reserved by the State in the grants to rail- 
roads made in pursuance of the statute of January 
30, 1854. The statute referred to granted sixteen 
sections of land for each mile of railroad to be built 
thereafter in the State, the land to be surveyed in 



STATEHOOD 279 

solid blocks, and alternate sections to be reserved 
by the State. The act of 1858 provided also for 
the organization of the university, but this was pre- 
vented by the approach and outbreak of the Civil 
War. 

In politics Texas was rather slow in adapting 
itself to party alignment on national issues. Rela- 
tive to the questions growing out of the Mexican 
war and to most of those involved in the Compro- 
mise of 1850, there could be, in the nature of the 
case, but one party in the State. The contests 
were, therefore, of a personal nature, and the elec- 
tions decided between men rather than policies. 
So long as this was true, the sympathies and antip- 
athies of the revolutionary and republican periods 
were constantly revived and emphasized. They 
were thus prolonged beyond their natural term, and 
served greatly to intensify and usually to embitter 
personal and political relations. As late as 1859 
General Houston thought it worth while to reply 
on the floor of the United States senate to what 
he regarded as criticisms on his management of the 
campaign of 183G, which had just been published in 
Texas, and by this means to invite further acrimo- 
nious attacks upon himself. But gradually the 
momentous questions of national policy claimed the 
attention of the Texans, and parties began to form. 
For this movement also the ground was cleared by 
the Compromise of 1850 and the financial readjust- 
ment of 1852. Excitement over national issues 
began to appear in Texas during the struggle in 



280 TEXAS 

congress over the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which was 
favored by Senator Rusk and opposed by Senator 
Houston. Houston's opposition to the bill cost 
him, for the time, much of his popularity in Texas ; 
but he was never the man to bow before a politi- 
cal storm. The first strong wave, however, from 
the centres of national politics that swept over 
Texas was that of Know-nothingism. In 1855 the 
Know-nothing party elected one of the two con- 
gressmen from Texas and also cast a surprisingly 
large vote for its candidate for governor, but the 
existence of the party was as brief in the Southwest 
as in other parts of the Union. By 1857 Texas 
was so Democratic that Hardin R. Runnels, the can- 
didate of that party, was able to beat Sam Hous- 
ton, who was supported by the elements opposed 
to it, for governor by a majority of about nine 
thousand in a total vote of only a little over fifty- 
five thousand. This was the Texas vote of censure 
on Houston for his attitude towards the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill ; but the State could not withdraw 
its favor permanently from the man to whom it 
owed so much, and two years later he turned the 
tables by running as an independent for the same 
office and beating Runnels, who was again the can- 
didate of the Democracy, in nearly the same pro- 
portion. The result, however, was not due simply 
to the revival of Houston's popularity. The more 
radical Democratic leaders favored the reestablish- 
ment of the slave trade, to which Texas was strongly 
opposed ; and while their views were not adopted 



STATEHOOD 281 

by the party, their utterances cost it many a vote. 
Around Houston, on the other hand, rallied the 
conservative element, with its dislike of extreme 
policies, its love of the Union, and its instinctive 
dread of civil war. This must be considered in 
accounting for the change of nearly ten thousand 
voters from the alignment of 1857. The State had 
again passed censure, but this time it was on the 
fire-eating section of the Democracy. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

CIVIL WAE AND RECONSTRUCTION 

If that country only is happy whose annals are 
uninteresting, happiness is not for Texas. Her 
people have never sunk into the inert obedience to 
circumstances that takes the life out of history. 
They have usually been impulsive, but never pas- 
sive. The thoughtful historian, however, will not 
accept the principle of the aphorism. Intense ex- 
perience and forceful reaction are the price of char- 
acter, as well in the collective as in the individual 
life. Texas has had her share of such experience ; 
and the reaction, whether rightly directed or not, 
has always been strong. Her most hopeful traits 
are abounding energy and vitality. Where these 
exist, knowledge comes, and wisdom follows in due 
time. But it is folly to judge the conduct of states 
by the standards of personal morality, or to expect of 
a commonwealth the intelligent utilitarianism that 
should be manifest in the better coordinated and 
controlled life of the individual. In public action 
the immediate working of the economic, the racial, 
or the traditional motive is necessarily more evident 
than in the behavior of the private citizen ; nor is 
it worth while to look for fine ethical influences 



CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 283 

behind constitutions, statutes, or party platforms. 
While these influences grow and strengthen with 
the progress of civilization, we have unfortunately 
not yet come to where they usually determine poli- 
tics. 

This is said, not simply by the way, but in ex- 
planation of what is to follow. It gives the point 
of view from which alone the conduct of Texas 
during the period now to be taken up can be under- 
stood. The same " ordinance of nature " which 
Daniel Webster claimed had excluded slavery from 
New Mexico had fixed it upon Texas. Then, too, 
eagerly as the people of Texas had turned from 
Mexico to merge again with those of their own blood 
and institutions in the United States, and warmly 
as they loved the Union, out of their political ex- 
perience and traditions they had inherited a still 
stronger sentiment of particular attachment to the 
State. It was, therefore, but natural that they 
should be drawn into the general current of seces- 
sion which swept through the Southern States in 
the early '60's. 

So it proved, in spite of certain appearances to 
the contrary as the crisis approached. The election 
of Houston in 1859 was, in a considerable measure, 
a victory for the conservative Union-loving element 
over the more radical portion of the Democracy. 
But already the course of events, throughout the 
United States, was passing beyond the control of 
the leaders. Efforts to enforce the Fugitive Slave 
Law and resistance thereto, together with the John 



284 TEXAS 

Brown raid, had so exasperated the people both 
North and South that it was now impossible to 
calm their rising passion or to compromise further. 
The election of Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 
brought the culmination of sectional differences. 
South Carolina led the way in seceding from the 
Union, December 20, 1860, and within a little over 
a month Georgia and all the Gulf States to the east 
of Texas followed the example. 

Meanwhile Governor Houston, like Daniel Web- 
ster in the days when the operation of the Compro- 
mise of 1850 — especially the Fugitive Slave Law — 
was rousing furious agitation among his constitu- 
ents, had centred all his strength in the vain effort 
to allay the feelings of his people and divert them 
from their object. With a more aggressive way 
and less of facile persuasiveness than Webster, he 
was still a man of powerful influence on the plat- 
form, and he might have accomplished anything 
less than the impossible ; but this was the task, in 
fact, that he had now set himself, and it is no won- 
der that he failed. In Texas almost the entire vote 
in the presidential election of 1860 was divided 
between Breckinridge and Bell. The conservatives 
and opposers of secession rallied to the support of 
Bell, and what Houston could do for them was done. 
He was outspoken in his condemnation of the dis- 
unionists and his claim that the success of Lincoln 
would not justify secession. The utterances of the 
Breckinridge men were exactly to the contrary on 
both points. The issue was fairly made, and the 



CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 285 

result was a crushing defeat for the conservatives. 
The Breckinridge electors received more than forty- 
seven thousand votes, while those for Bell had only 
a little over fifteen thousand. Houston no longer 
had Texas at his back. 

Nevertheless he did not despair. In spite of re- 
peated and urgent petitions and requests that poured 
in upon him, he refused to convene the legislature 
to call a convention until a number of political 
leaders had taken the extra-legal step of issuing the 
call. This was done on December 3, 1860, and the 
time appointed for the convention was January 28, 
1861. December 7 Houston issued a proclamation 
calling an extra session of the legislature to meet 
January 21. Meanwhile, in pursuance of a joint 
resolution passed by the legislature February 16, 
1858, growing out of the Kansas troubles and pro- 
viding for a call by Texas under certain contin- 
gencies of a convention of the Southern States for 
the preservation of their equal rights, he had sent 
a circular letter to the governor of those States pro- 
posing such a convention. The letter seems to have 
been neglected ; at any rate, there was apparently 
no action in response to it. This proposition, as 
well as the call for the extra session of the legis- 
lature, was doubtless intended to avert or forestall 
the much dreaded act of secession. 

But the tide was now too strong to turn or check. 
The legislature met on the day appointed, and the 
governor laid before it an earnest and strong mes- 
sage deploring the election of Lincoln, but reiterat- 



286 TEXAS 

ing his belief that it did not demand secession ; 
recalling the obligations that Texas had incurred to 
the " border States " ^ during the revolution ; favor- 
ing cooperation with the other States of the South 
and the submission of any final measure to a popu- 
lar vote ; and urging caution and moderation. The 
views and most of the suggestions of the governor 
met with little favor. The legislature immediately 
repealed the joint resolution of February 16, 1858, 
under which he had acted in proposing a convention 
of the Southern States for cooperation in preserving 
their equal rights in the Union. Then by a large 
majority it recognized the convention that had been 
called to meet January 28 as empowered to act for 
the people, requiring only that its action should be 
submitted to them. 

The convention met in accordance with the call, 
organized with Judge O. M. Roberts as chairman, 
and established at once official communication with 
the governor through a committee. He assured 
the convention of his obedience to the will of the 
people, asserting that as of old he was with his 
country. On February 1 an ordinance of secession 
was passed by a vote of one hundred and sixty-six 
to seven. The ordinance was to be voted on by 
the people February 23. The convention, antici- 
pating popular ratification of the ordinance, pro- 
vided for the election of delegates from Texas to 
join with those of the other seceding States in es- 

^ That is, those slave States that were adjacent to the free 
States. 



CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 287 

tablishing a provisional confederate government at 
Montgomery, and for the appointment of a commit- 
tee of safety. After a short session it adjoui'ned 
to meet again on March 2, by which time it was 
expected that the result of the popular vote would 
be known. 

At the appointed time the convention reassem- 
bled, and on March 4, the day of Lincoln's inau- 
guration, it counted the vote — over forty-four thou- 
sand in favor of secession, and a few more than 
thirteen thousand against it. 

The State had broken finally away from Hous- 
ton's lead, but during the canvass he had put him- 
self on record in public utterances that came as 
from the tongue of a prophet. In a speech at 
Galveston a few days before the election, he stood 
in the presence of a crowd to whom few others 
could safely have spoken as he did, and, deprecat- 
ing the resistless impulse that was hurrying them 
on to secession, he prophesied for the South ulti- 
mate defeat. At the same time he declared his 
sympathy for the State and his determination to 
stand by it, " right or wrong." A few weeks later 
his last act of opposition to the policy which was 
approved by the people and on which the leaders 
were now determined cost him his official life. On 
being summoned to appear before the convention 
on March 16 and publicly take an oath of office by 
which he must swear allegiance to the Confederate 
States, he refused, and challenged the right of the 
convention to exist after it had performed the f unc- 



288 . TEXAS 

tion of submitting the ordinance of secession to the 
people. Thereupon it declared the governorship 
vacant and directed the lieutenant-governor, Ed- 
ward Clark, to assume the duties of the office till 
the next election. An effort was made by Hous- 
ton's friends in the legislature to secure interfer- 
ence in his favor by that body, but it failed. He 
then retired to his home in Huntsville, where he 
remained till his death in 1863. 

The war was soon under way ; but, fortunately 
for Texas, that State never became the scene of 
active military operations. The Texans poured 
forth to join the Confederate armies, and some of 
their organizations, such as Hood's brigade and 
the Terry rangers, won proud eminence on many a 
bloody field ; but their record was made in other 
States. The committee of safety provided for by 
the convention organized the defense of Texas, 
appointing Colonel Ben McCuUoch to take charge 
of the post at San Antonio, Colonel Henry E. Mc- 
CuUoch to command the forces on the northwestern 
frontier, and Colonel John S. Ford to command 
those on the Rio Grande. It also sent commis- 
sioners to confer with General Twiggs, who was in 
command of the Federal troops in Texas, relative 
to the surrender of his men and of the property of 
the national government in his charge. Twiggs 
was a Southern man and a sympathizer with seces- 
sion. He promised to surrender after a show of 
force had been made, and so he did. The troops 
were to be allowed to leave the State, taking their 



CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 289 

arms. The property and munitions of war given 
up amounted in value to twelve hundred thousand 
dollars. 

This advantage was followed up by an effort to 
secure control of New Mexico. In the summer of 
1861 the Confederates under Lieutenant-Colonel 
John R. Baylor obtained a lodgment on the Rio 
Grande in the southern part of the Territory and 
captured seven hundred Federals who marched 
against them. Early the next year the campaign 
in that quarter was renewed by General Sibley of 
the Confederate army, who defeated the Federals 
under General Canby at Val Verde. The Con- 
federates then pushed on and occupied Albuquer- 
que and Santa F^ ; but their advance was checked 
at Apache Canon near Santa F^, and after that 
they gradually retired. They abandoned the Terri- 
tory finally in July, 1862. 

The defense of the Texas borders was sufficiently 
effective to keep the Federal troops from penetrat- 
ing into the State until the war was over. In the 
fall and winter of 1862 Galveston was in their 
possession for nearly three months ; but at the end 
of that time it was recaptured, and thenceforth it 
remained in the hands of the Confederates. In 
September, 1863, the Federal general Banks tried 
to break in by way of Sabine Pass, but his effort 
ended in a disastrous defeat. In the fall and win- 
ter of 1863-1864 he got possession of almost the 
entire coast line except at Galveston and the mouth 
of the Brazos, but he held it for only a short time. 



290 TEXAS 

Finally, In March, 1864, he made, in co(3peration 
with General Steele, an attempt to advance up Red 
River and capture Shreveport and enter Texas 
that way, but a decisive defeat at Sabine Cross 
Roads ^ drove Banks back to Alexandria and Steele 
to Little* Rock. There was no fighting in the in- 
terior of Texas during the whole period of the war, 
but it is a fact worth noting by the curious that 
the last engagement between the Federal and the 
Confederate forces took place at Palmito near Palo 
Alto on the Rio Grande, May 13, 1865.^ The num- 
ber of men engaged was only a few hundred on 
each side, but the fighting was energetic, and the 
casualties relatively numerous. The Federals were 
forced to retreat ; the results, however, were of no 
importance. It was simply the final sword-thrust 
of the dying Confederacy. 

Texas suffered little by the war except for the 
drain upon the strength of its citizenship and upon 
its material resources, and the latter were recruited 
in ways not possible for the other Confederate 
States. It was the only one of them that was not 
overrun by invasion. Crops were planted and 
gathered while the conflict was in progress, and 
business went on with a degree of security and reg- 
ularity that prevailed nowhere else in the South. 
The line of the Rio Grande was the one border of 

1 The battle is known in Texas as that of Mansfiehl. 

^ The place was almost the exact spot where the Mexican war 
began. The time was more than a mouth after the surrender at 
Appomattox. 



CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 291 

the Confederacy that could be neither blockaded 
nor controlled by Northern armies. It was more 
or less infested by robbers, and there were one or 
two raids up the river by the Federal troops in the 
course of the war, but there was no effective inter- 
ference with the commerce back and forth across 
the river. As much of the cotton raised in Texas 
as could escape the State and Confederate tax- 
gatherers might pass out through the wide gap 
freely, and a great deal did go that way ; but the 
means of transportation were so inadequate and 
costly that the trade was greatly handicapped. On 
the whole, Texas saw little of the worst actualities 
of the war as they appeared in the States where 
the hostile armies met and struggled, and when it 
was over she was soon ready to begin anew the 
march of intellectual and material progress. 

But before the energies of the Texans could be 
fairly turned again to the industrial and educa- 
tional affairs from which they had been diverted 
by the war, there was set a task for them which 
it required all their strength and patience to ac- 
complish. This was to save the State from the 
mischievous effects of the congressional policy of 
reconstruction. It would no doubt be as much a 
mistake to question the sincerity of those who 
were responsible for the policy as it would be to 
impute bad motives to the Southern people in 
seceding ; yet it will now be denied by few that 
the majority in Congress acted with undue haste 
and with too little appreciation of real conditions 



292 TEXAS 

in the South. Naturally there was considerable 
friction between the emancipated slaves and their 
old masters, nor was it to be expected that they 
would always show mutual forbearance in dealing 
with each other. There were grave problems con- 
cerning the adjustment of their i-elations, which 
still exist and clamor for solution ; but the solution, 
if it come at all, must come from the people of the 
South themselves. The efforts of others, however 
well meant, have served in general only to add com- 
plications. This fact has been sharply driven in 
upon the national intellect and conscience by the 
experiences of the reconstruction epoch. 

The first organization of the Texas government 
took place under President Johnson's plan of re- 
construction. On June 17, 1865, the President 
appointed A. J. Hamilton provisional governor. 
Hamilton had been prominent in the politics of the 
State before the war ; had been a member of Con- 
gress when secession took place and had refused 
to resign ; and had been a brigadier-general in 
the Federal army and military governor of Texas 
by appointment of President Lincoln in 1862. 
Towards the end of July, 1865, he arrived in 
Texas and began his work. Meanwhile, on June 
19, General Gordon Granger, of the United States 
army, had taken military possession of the State, 
and had issued a proclamation declaring all acts 
of its government subsequent to secession illegal, 
and the negroes free. Governor Hamilton issued 
a proclamation to the negroes, who had now been 



CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 293 

released from slavery by the thirteenth amendment 
to the United States constitution, informing them 
that the government could give them nothing, and 
advising them to go to work for themselves. He 
then called a convention to provide for the reor- 
ganization of the government. Those who had 
supported the Confederacy qualified as voters at 
the election of delegates by taking the oath of alle- 
giance to the United States government. 

The convention adopted ^the constitution in force 
in the State before secession, with amendments 
made necessary by the outcome of the war, recog- 
nizing the abolition of slavery, renouncing the 
right of secession, conferring certain civil rights 
on freedmen, repudiating the debt incurred by the 
State in waging the war, and assuming the tax that 
had been levied by the United States government 
on Texas from the time the State had seceded. 
The revised constitution was submitted to the peo- 
ple and ratified by them, and on the same day was 
held a general election in which J. W. Throck- 
morton, one of the seven who had voted against 
the secession ordinance of 1861, was elected gov- 
ernor. 

The new government bent its energies at once to 
the restoration of order and the improvement, so 
far as lay in its power, of the general condition of 
the State. This was no easy task. While the 
feeling left in Texas by the war was perhaps less 
bitter than in the States that had suffered more, it 
was sufficiently intense, for the time, to be danger- 



294 TEXAS 

ous for an unpopular official, or for the man whose 
duty required him to execute an unpopular law. 
Nevertheless, though the Texans were too strong in 
their convictions and too stalwart in character to 
yield with docile readiness to the painful process of 
social and political readjustment, they had too much 
good sense and self-control to continue the vain 
struggle when a better day was already in sight. 
It was therefore unfortunate that their work was 
interfered with by a further test of their capacity 
for endurance ; but so it happened. 

Congress refused to accept the results attained 
under the presidential plan of reconstruction, and 
decided that the work must be done over according 
to its acts of March 2, March 23, and July 19, 1867. 
These acts provided for a new reorganization of 
the governments of the Southern States in which 
the negroes should participate, but those who had 
taken an official oath to support the constitution 
of the United States, and had afterwards engaged 
in the war of secession, should have no share. The 
legislatures of the reorganized governments were 
to adopt the fourteenth amendment to the consti- 
tution of the United States, which had been pro- 
posed by Congress, and had already been rejected 
by most of the Southern States. Until the new 
governments were formed and approved by Con- 
gress, the South was to be under military rule. It 
was divided into five districts, one of which was 
composed of Louisiana and Texas, and the general 
in charfre of this district was Sheridan. 



CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 295 

General Sheridan at once inaugurated a severe 
and radical policy in crushing out the alleged dis- 
loyalty in the State. Governor Throckmorton was 
removed as an " impediment to reconstruction," 
and the great body of state and local officials 
gradually shared his fate, their places being taken 
by men who were expected to be strenuous in 
carrying out the congressional policy. The result 
was that the government fell into the hands of a 
few men, who were out of sympathy with the great 
mass of intelligent and influential citizens. They 
had the almighty support of the United States 
troops, together with such backing as could be 
given them by the mass of negroes, a number of 
whites who became Republicans for money's sake, 
and some others — in the main excellent men — 
who were Republicans by conviction. What the 
working of such a government would be can easily 
be imagined. But even the outlines of the picture 
would be incomplete without some notice of the 
irritation produced by the interference of the offi- 
cials of the Freedman's Bureau on behalf of the 
negroes against the whites. This, to the Northern 
man who saw the situation from a distance and 
understood neither the Southern white nor the 
negro, may have appeared necessary to protect the 
blacks ; but its practical working was to cut them 
off from their old masters, on whom they must ulti- 
mately depend for employment. 

The work of congressional reconstruction covered 
about three years. In 1868 a new convention was 



296 TEXAS 

elected in accordance with the terms of the act of 
Congress. It shaped a constitution which was sub- 
mitted to the people and adopted in November, 
1869. At the same time state officers and con- 
gressmen were elected. At its session beginning 
February 8, 1870, the legislature ratified the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth amendments, and elected 
United States senators. On March 30 Texas was 
" readmitted " to the Union, and on the 31st her 
senators and representatives took their seats. The 
troops which were distributed through the State 
were withdrawn, and the bitter trial of reconstruc- 
tion was over. 

The government which the congressional policy 
had entailed upon the people of Texas was one for 
which they had little love. At the election that 
took place in November, 1872, the Democrats 
secured control of the legislature and filled all the 
seats belonging to the State in congress ; but the 
governor, E. J. Davis, had been chosen for a four 
years' term. In December, 1873, Democratic vic- 
tory at the polls made Richard Coke governor ; 
Davis, however, disputed the constitutionality of 
the law under which the election had been held 
and refused to surrender the government. Both 
sides were backed by military force, and it looked 
for a time as if the dispute must end in bloodshed ; 
but on the refusal of President Grant to support 
Davis with troops, the opposition dissolved early 
in January, 1874, and Coke and the various offi- 
cers of his administration were installed without 



CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 297 

farther trouble. In 1876 a new constitution was 
adopted in place of that formed under the recon- 
struction act, and the State had finally rid itself, 
so far as it could, of whatever might remind it of 
the darkest period in its history. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 

Rid of the incubus of slavery, and witli her gov- 
ernment again in the hands of her own people, 
Texas received a new progressive impulse that has 
seemed to grow and strengthen with each succeed- 
ing year. It would appear as if the industrial and 
moral energies of the State were emancipated along 
with the slaves, and the record of its development 
during the last quarter of a century has been really 
wonderful. In population, in wealth, in educa- 
tion, and in general culture, the increase has been 
equally striking. The grain of Anglo-American 
mustard seed planted in the far Southwest has 
grown to a stately tree, in which many of the best 
ideas and impulses of the whole outer world have 
come to nest. 

This is no idle boast, but the statement of a fact. 
The greatness of Texas lies not so much in its vast 
extent of territory and its abundance of natural 
resources as in the character of its people, which is 
a composite — with the good predominant — of 
qualities peculiar to many lands, whence the citizen- 
ship of the State has been recruited. 

As to the territorial extent of Texas, there is 



THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 299 

undoubtedly a degree of instructiveness in the com- 
parisons which its patriotic citizens so often make 
by superposing it as a measure on other political 
divisions of America or Europe and thus empha- 
sizing its enormous area and showing how small 
New England or even Old England or France 
appears relative thereto ; but such comparisons 
suggest to the economist and the historian of real 
insight facts that are far more important. Of 
much greater significance than mere reach of sur- 
face is the extreme productiveness and widely vary- 
ing adaptability of the land. These constitute the 
natural basis for a complex and highly developed 
civilization ; and they promise for Texas, in spite 
of the swift advance of industrial centralization that 
exploits every gift of nature for the benefit of dis- 
tant commercial centres, a preeminence of strength 
and influence that is as yet scarcely foreshadowed. 
In its agricultural resources Texas can hardly be 
said to have a rival. In a wide belt extending into 
the State from the north for the greater part of its 
length is one of the finest bodies of tillable land 
that are to be found in the world, the soil being 
black, deep, and exceedingly rich. The staple 
crops grown thereon are Indian corn and cotton ; 
and the yield, when climatic conditions are not too 
unfavorable, is in overflowing abundance. Equally 
productive are the river bottoms eastward from this 
belt. On the lower course of the Brazos much 
sugar is produced. Stretching along the Gulf coast 
is an almost level plain from fifty to one hundred 



300 TEXAS 

miles in width which is specially adapted to the 
growth of vegetables and fruit, and in the north- 
eastern end of it the production of rice is becoming 
very extensive ; while in the sandy or red soils of 
eastern Texas appears an even greater fitness for 
the cultivation of many varieties of fruit. 

Certain facts indicated by the Twelfth Census 
bring into strong relief the importance of the agri- 
cultural interests of Texas. The statistical tables 
show that in 1899 this State produced more than 
twice as much cotton, which is its staple crop, as 
any other, and more than one fourth of the entire 
crop of the United States. The value of the Texas 
product for that year was nearly one hundred mil- 
lion dollars. There were in 1899 only four States 
of the Union that surpassed Texas in the gross 
value of their agricultural produce, and it seems 
well assured that these four must soon be out- 
stripped in the unequal race. 

While Texas is thus far mainly an agricultural 
State, and while it will perhaps be such for some 
years hence, it is not for tilling the soil alone that 
nature has given it advantages. The southwestern 
and western parts of it are too dry for agriculture 
without irrigation, but they afford excellent pas- 
turage for large herds of cattle. East Texas 
has immense forests of pine and other valuable 
timber. The mining interests of the State are 
already of considerable importance, but there seems 
good reason to believe that hardly a beginning 
has been made in the development of its mineral 



THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 301 

resources. The precious metals have been found in 
paying quantities in the central mineral region of 
the State and in the Trans-Pecos district. In the 
former and in eastern Texas are fine deposits of 
iron ore. Many thousand square miles of the terri- 
tory of the State are underlaid with coal and lignite 
beds, and at Beaumont and Corsicana are highly 
valuable oil wells. 

As to the Texas cattle industry, again the statis- 
tics afford the clearest light. In the value of its 
domestic animals in the year 1900, this State was 
far ahead of all others except Iowa, which surpassed 
it slightly, but was evidently about to be overtaken. 
In the value of its neat cattle, Texas was already 
well in the lead of all the other States. 

In manufactures, the State of Texas is yet far 
behind, and in fact it can scarcely be said to have 
even entered the race. During the decade from 
1890 to 1900 it did no more than to rise from the 
twenty-fourth place among the States and Territo- 
ries, with an annual product of about seventy mil- 
lions in value, to the twenty-third, with a product 
valued at nearly one hundred and twenty millions. 
But while there are certain obstacles to the devel- 
opment of manufacturing industries in Texas, as 
for example in the wi '^^of skilled labor and the 
ancient difficulty in prot. icing iron of getting the 
fuel and the ore together, it seems impossible, when 
one takes into consideration the abundance and 
variety of raw materials and the generally favor- 
able conditions in other respects for manufacturing 



302 TEXAS 

in the State, that it should not soon forge ahead 
along this line, as it is doing so rapidly in others. 
This has been prevented hitherto, in large measure, 
by the scarcity of capital in the Southwest, and the 
ease of profitable investments without the risk at- 
tendant upon the establishment of new industries. 
But the available capital in this State is increasing, 
and rates of interest are falling so rapidly that 
unemployed money must soon be driven towards 
manufacturing channels. There seems to be at 
present a strong drift towards the development of 
textile industries in Texas, and it is likely that the 
first great impulse will come from that direction, 
just as it has in other States of the South. 

From whatever quarter it may come, however, 
the impulse will be welcome. It is to be hoped that 
Texas is meanwhile acquiring the rightness and 
strength of habit that will enable her to deal success- 
fully with the grave political and social problems of 
a more complex industrial system, but the delay 
should not be over-long. The mere art of money- 
making is undoubtedly too much sought after by 
this generation. Education and exi^erience must 
gradually give to the genius of American civiliza- 
tion a healthier view of the significance and uses of 
life which shall regard wealth less as an end and 
more as a means than now ; but wealth must re- 
main, as society is at present organized, the most 
abounding source of individual and national influ- 
ence. From this standpoint, it is a less important 
fact, in measuring the relative advantages of the 



THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 303 

largest and smallest States in the Union, that 
Rhode Island has as many senators at Washington 
as Texas, than that the income per capita of her 
population from agriculture and manufactures com- 
bined is over four hundred and forty dollars per 
annum, while that of the people of Texas is less 
than one hundred and twenty. 

One standard by which the progress of a people 
may be measured with substantially fair results is 
the means of intercommunication. A few state- 
ments will suffice to show the advantages that Texas 
now has in this respect, and how they have come. 
Railroad building in the State began in 1852 with 
the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railroad, 
which was started west from the town of Harris- 
burg in that year, and which was the germ of the 
great Sunset system of to-day. The next road was 
the Galveston and Red River, begun at Houston 
in 1853 with the plan of crossing the State towards 
the north. The name of this road was changed in 
1856 to the Houston and Texas Central. The com- 
ing of the Civil War practically stopped railroad 
building, nor did it begin again actively till near 
the close of the reconstruction period. In 1870 
the State had in operation only about five hundred 
miles of railway, or about one mile for every five 
hundred and forty square miles of territory ; but 
from that time forward the mileage increased with 
extraordinary rapidity. The Houston and Texas 
Central was pushed northwards across the State, 
with branches diverging in various directions, the 



304 TEXAS 

Texas Pacific westward across the northern portion 
from the eastern boundary to El Paso ; the Inter- 
national and Great Northern southwestward from 
the connections afforded by the Texas Pacific at 
Longview to Laredo on the Mexican border, whence 
the Mexican National soon afforded passage to the 
city of Mexico ; and the Galveston, Harrisburg, 
and San Antonio, which was simply a new name for 
the old Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado line, 
west through San Antonio to the Mexican border 
at Eagle Pass, whence connection with the city of 
Mexico was supplied by the Mexican International, 
and northwestward up the Rio Grande to El Paso, 
whence the Southern Pacific opened the way to 
California. In 1876 the lines in operation in the 
State aggregated two thousand miles, or about one 
to one hundred and thirty-two square miles of the 
State's surface. In 1890 the figures had so changed 
that the aggregate mileage reached more than 
eighty-seven hundred, while the ratio was a little 
over one to thirty-two. The corresponding figures 
for the State of Massachusetts the same year are a 
little above two thousand, and something over one 
to four. In 1900 the total mileage in Texas was 
soraethinjj over ten thousand. Illinois and Penn- 
sylvania had each a little more. The ratio of miles 
of railway to square miles of area in Texas had 
risen to one to about twenty-six, while in Massa- 
chusetts it was almost the same as in 1890. 

Though the average income per capita of the 
Texans is far less than that of the people in many 



THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 305 

other States, Texas is growing rich fast. In ap- 
proximate figures, the value of the property in the 
State, as assessed for taxation, in 1850 was fifty 
millions ; in 1860 it was three hundred millions ; 
in 1870 one hundred and seventy millions ; in 
1880 three hundred and eleven millions ; in 1890 
seven hundred and eighty-two millions ; while in 
1902 it was one thousand and seventeen millions. 

Men are worth more than money. Whatever 
the wealth or natural resources of a State may 
be, it is the people who, in the last analysis, are its 
most essential and interesting element. A few 
facts concerning the make-up and antecedents of 
the people of Texas may go a good way towards 
explaining the Texan character. This is the one 
Southern State that has really grown by immigra- 
tion. The white population of Texas at the out- 
break of the Revolution was something over twenty 
thousand. Morfit, the agent sent by Jackson in 
1836, estimated the number of Anglo-Americans 
at thirty thousand. From the time when the figures 
of the United States census become available, the 
population at the end of each successive decade is, 
in round numbers, as follows : in 1850 two hundred 
and twelve thousand ; in 1860 six hundred and four 
thousand ; in 1870 eight hundred and eighteen 
thousand ; in 1880 sixteen hundred thousand ; in 
1890 nearly two and a quarter millions; in 1900 
three million and fifty thousand. 

While the larger part of the immigration to Texas 
has come from the States of the South further east 



306 TEXAS 

and northeast, much of it has been from other parts 
of the world. It has by no means obeyed the rule 
of following parallels. There are few States, in 
fact, whose people are so cosmopolitan. Of its 
three million and fifty thousand inhabitants in 
1900, about fifteen hundred thousand were native 
whites, and about five hundred thousand native 
negroes. The number of whites not born in the 
State was something over nine hundred thousand, 
of whom about twenty thousand were from the 
North Atlantic States, one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand from the South Atlantic, one hundred and 
twenty thousand from the North Central, five hun- 
dred and thirty thousand from the South Central 
other than Texas itself, and six thousand from 
the Western. Ten thousand were born under the 
United States flag in no specified State or Territory. 
The foreign population was one hundred and eighty 
thousand, of whom about seventy thousand were 
from Mexico, fifty thousand from Germany, nine 
thousand from Bohemia, eight thousand from Eng- 
land, seven thousand from Austria, six thousand 
from Ireland, four thousand from Italy, four thou- 
sand from Sweden, two thousand from France. 
The number of Mexicans and Germans born in the 
State, and thus classed as natives, is also very large. 
This summarized and general analysis will sufiice 
to show how numerous and how diverse are the 
elements of the population of Texas. 

Much in the Texan type of character is to be 
explained by the process of natural selection which 



THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 307 

worked in determining the kind of people carried 
thither by the earlier movement of the Anglo- 
Americans towards that section. They were just 
such as would undertake, of their own will, pioneer 
work in a country not yet won either from nature 
or from the Indians, where there was much to dare 
and much to undergo. There were no gold mines 
to tempt them, nor any prospect of suddenly ac- 
quiring great riches. The motive was simply that 
of bettering their condition, and of securing a 
chance, perhaps, to become wealthy as the land they 
were given should increase in value. The induce- 
ments were not such as to attract adventurers, and 
there were few of these that came. The colonists 
were mainly poor in worldly goods, but they were 
brave, hardy, and self-reliant. With the develop- 
ment, however, of the Republic and the State, as 
the conditions became more settled and the risks 
grew less and opportunities more abundant, another 
class was drawn toward Texas. This was composed 
of shrewd and keen-sighted men of business, watch- 
ful for every chance and ready to improve it to the 
utmost, and especially fit for the development of 
the commercial interests of any section. It is these 
especially who have accumulated capital, have built 
the cities, and have taken the lead in the great 
industrial enterprises of the State. 

Upon the Texas individuality has been left also 
the stamp of the remarkable experiences that have 
gone to make up the history of the Republic and 
the State. Were there not remaininjj in Texas the 



308 TEXAS 

descendants of those who died in the Alamo, or of 
those who followed Houston in the retreat before 
the Mexicans in 1836, and who finally turned upon 
them with destructive energy at San Jacinto, the 
traditions of the revolution could still hardly fail 
to raise the standard of manhood of the people 
whose inheritance they have become. The indom- 
itable energy of the colonists in defense of their 
rights as they understood them, their seK-assertion 
and self-devotion, have undoubtedly left a residuum 
of influence that is still manifest in the great mass 
of Texans ; nor is it difficult to see in the Texas 
character surviving traces of the strenuous self- 
repression and the fierce antipathies of the days of 
reconstruction that time alone will remove. Yet 
the people of Texas, boastful as they may be at 
times, have never been touched by the leaven of the 
Pharisee. 

On the whole, the best outcome of Texas history 
and the best illustration of the Texas spirit lie in 
the educational and eleemosynary systems of the 
State, and the chapter and this book may be fitly 
closed with a few words concerning them. Pari 
passu with the growth of population and of wealth 
in the State has grown the feeling of obligation to 
provide for the care of its defectives and the edu- 
cation of its youth. The first public charitable 
institution in Texas was that for the blind, which 
was opened in 1856. It was soon followed by the 
institute for the deaf and dumb and the asylum 
for the insane. Within the last few years these 



THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 309 

institutions have been multiplied and enlarged till 
now the State may fairly claim to be apjjroxi mating 
an adequate and efficient system. The list of estab- 
lishments now includes four extensive asylums for 
lunatics, one being especially for epileptics, an 
institute for the deaf and dumb, one for the blind, 
one for colored deaf, dumb, and blind, an orphans' 
home, and a home for Confederate veterans. These, 
at the limit of their capacity, provide for about 
thirty-six hundred lunatics, four hundred and fifty 
white deaf and dumb, one hundred and seventy-five 
white blind, one hundred colored deaf and dumb oi' 
blind, three hundred orphans, and three hundred 
and twenty Confederate veterans. 

The care of defectives, orphans, and veterans, 
however, would be the prompting of simple human- 
ity, and an extensive system for the purpose might 
be more the outgrowth of general sympathy than 
of high social ideals or a clear view of how the 
o-overnment can render most effective service to the 
people. The best and truest measure, perhaps, of 
the insight and the social wisdom of any community 
lies in the perfection of its educational institutions. 
If Texas is yet too young to claim a place, in this 
respect, among the very foremost States, there are 
certainly few that are making such rapid progress. 
The reader has already seen that education was 
one of the earliest concerns of the Republic, and 
that the State showed the same desire and strove 
to realize it until the outbreak of the Civil War. 
"When reconstruction was over, and the thought 



310 TEXAS 

and energy of the people of Texas began to return 
to their accustomed channels, the work of educa- 
tional development began anew, and was pushed on 
with great vigor. Since then, much progress has 
been made towards the establishment of a really- 
good and efficient system of public schools. Most 
cities and towns of importance have formed inde- 
pendent school districts and levied special taxes 
for their support. The sy^stem of joining state and 
local effort so as to supplement each other has been 
so wisely framed and administered as to afford a 
degree of educational advantage to the poorest 
communities, and at the same time to foster local 
responsibility and civic pride. 

Along with the common schools, and superposed 
thereon, has grown up also a system of secondary 
and higher education. This began with the estab- 
lishment of the State Agricultural and Mechanical 
College in 1876. The next step forward was the 
founding of the Sam Houston Normal Institute in 
1879 ; and the next, the organization of the Uni- 
versity of Texas, which was opened to students in 
1883. Besides the institutions named the State has 
another normal school for training white teachers at 
Denton and still another soon to be opened at San 
Marcos, one for colored teachers at Prairie View, 
and a girl's industrial school to begin work shortly 
at Denton ; while in the high schools of the cities 
and larger towns students expecting to enter the 
University can obtain preparatory training that is 
rapidly attaining a high degree of excellence. 



THE TEXAS OF TO-DAY 311 

The growth of the University has been very 
gratifying. At the time of its organization in 1883, 
it opened with a faculty of thirteen officers and 
instructors of all ranks, and only about two hun- 
dred students, who were divided between the aca- 
demic and the law departments. For the year 
1901-1902 the faculties and other officers of the 
various branches of the University numbered one 
hundred and ten, and the total enrollment amounted 
to nearly thirteen hundred. 

For all that the State and the independent dis- 
tricts are doing, private educational enterprise 
continues to flourish in Texas. In the thirteenth 
biennial report of the superintendent of public 
instruction (1902) appear statistics of fifty-six pri- 
vate and church schools and colleges, which make 
quite a creditable showing for private education in 
the State. 

It is, however, rather of educational progress 
than of the status attained that Texas can boast ; 
and the same is true not only in education, but in 
most other matters. What has been done is not as 
significant and hopeful in itself as it is in its pro- 
mise of more to come. So Texas looks out upon 
the twentieth century and all future time brimming 
with courage, energy, and faith. 



INDEX 



AoAES, Spanish settlement at, 47; near 
Natchitoches, 75 ; flight of Spanish 
from, 76. 

Agricultural and Mechanical College, 
310. 

Agricultural resources of Texas, 299, 
300. 

Aguayo, Marques de San Miguel de, 
his cntrada, 11, 78. 

Alamau, his message of initiative in 
1830, 159, IGO. 

Alamo, the, its origin, 71 ; the name, 
71; beginning of the siege of, 20(j ; 
the storming of, 208; Mexican loss 
at, 209 ; besieged while convention 
was at work, 218. 

Alarcon, Governor Martin de, corre- 
spondence with La Harpe, 49; rela- 
tions with the missionaries, 49; 
founder of San Antonio, 69, 70. 

Alcaldes, 62. 

Almonte, Colonel, 226. 

Altamira, his review of Spanish colo- 
nizing work, 87, 88. 

Anahuac, expedition against, 176. 

Anglo-Americans, their filibustering 
expeditions, 8 ; their appearance in 
Texas, 111; preserve their own in- 
stitutions in Texas, 151 ; restrictions 
on privileges granted them, 158 ; 
danger to Mexico in free entry of, 
160; Mexican suspicion of, 171; their 
bearing towards the Mexican sol- 
diery, 175 ; their character, 307. 

Annexation, Texas vote in favor of, 
1836, 229, 255 ; deferred by dispute 
over slavery, 256; overtures for, in- 
vited by Texas, 256, 257 ; efforts of 
Great Britain to prevent, 256 ; atti- 
tude of Mexico towards, 256 ; treaty 
of, defeated, 257 ; the issue in the 
campaign of 1844, 258 ; accomplished 
by joint resolution, 258, 250 ; sup- 
ported by antislavery men, 261. 

Apaches, Spanish checked by, 15 ; 
Lipan, their request for a mission, 
88 ; mission granted to, 89. 

Archer, Branch T., commissioner to 
United States, 193, 198; president 
of consultation, 195. 

Archives, attempt to remove them to 
Houston, 240. 



Armada, defeat of, 12. 

Armijo, Governor, 246. 

Arroyo Hondo, line between Louieiana 
and Texas, 81, 127. 

Asinais, Spanish name for the Cenis, 
24; included among the Tejas, 33; 
Hidalgo among the, 39 ; Saint-Denis 
among the, 42. 

Atlantic coast, colonized by English, 4. 

Aury, Louis de, his government on 
Galveston Island, 132; leaves Gal- 
veston Island to Lafitte, 133. 

Austin, city of, laid out in 1839, 230. 

Austin, Moses, in Philadelphia, 138; 
in Virginia, 138; his visit to " Upper 
Louisiana," 138, 139; his settlement 
there, 139; his plan for a colony in 
Texas, 140 ; his journey to San 
Antonio, 140 ; his petition approved 
by Governor Martinez, 141; death 
of, 141 ; charge concerning his state- 
ments in Mexico, 148. 

Austin, Stephen F., cooperates in hia 
father's enterprise, 140; takes up 
his father's plan, 141; in the Mis- 
souri legislature, 142 ; circuit judge 
in Arkansas, 142 ; in New Orleans, 
142; his first visit to Texas, 142, 
143 ; recognized as empresario, 143 ; 
his plan for his colony, 143; his re- 
quirement of purchase money for 
land, 144; his first party of settlers, 
144, 145; his first visit to Mexico, 
145; confirmation of his grant, 147; 
his good faith towards Mexico, 148 ; 
his powers of government, 149 ; re- 
turns to his colony, 149 ; his dif- 
ficiUties, 150 ; obtains additional 
grants, 155 ; the principal empre- 
sario, 157; opposes the Fredonians, 
166 ; advises Texans to avoid na- 
tional politics, 172; his attitude to- 
wards slavery, 172, 173; with Mejia, 
178 ; president of convention of 1832, 
181; opposed by William H. Whar- 
ton, 182, 183; commissioner to 
Mexico, 185 ; his second visit to 
Mexico and imprisonment, 185 ; his 
restraining influence, 190; his 
speech in favor of a consultation, 
190, 191; commander-in-chief of 
Texas army, 192 ; elected commis- 



314 



INDEX 



sionerto United States, 198 ; absent 
from Texas during convention of 
183G, 210; favors a declaration of 
independence, 211; a candidate for 
president, 229. 
Ayuntainienio, 62. 

Baker, Mosely, refusal of his company 
to follow Houston in retreat, 221, 
223. 
Banks, defeated at Sabine Pass, 289 ; 
his defeat at Sabine Cross Roads 
(Mansfield), 290. 
Barragan, president ad interim, 107. 
Bastrop, Baron de, his service to Moses 

Austin, 141. 
Bean, Ellis, a member of Nolan's 

party, 112. 
Beason's Ford, 222. 
Btijar, the name, 74; exposed to 
Apaches and Comanches, 94; not 
represented in convention of 1832, 
ISO; department of, 187; captured 
by Texans in 1835, 192, '93 ; the 
departments of, 230. 
Bell, vote for, in Texas, 285. 
Bexar Archives, 125. 
Bienville, expels the English from the 
Mississippi, 37; bis protest against 
Spanish settlement at Adaes, 47 ; 
his note to Alarcon, 49 ; his orders 
to Blondel, 77 ; his protest against 
establishment of Pilar, 79 ; his work 
in Louisiana, 80. 
Blackburn, Ephraim, his execution, 

115. 
Blondel denies attacking Adaes, 77. 
Boundaries of Texas, adjustment of, 

in 1850, 265. 
Boundary, the Spanish, recedes west, 
110 ; of Texas, defined, in Decem- 
ber, 1836, 243 ; of province of Texas, 
not the Rio Grande, 2G2 ; of Texas, 
final adjustment of, 267. 
Bowie, Colonel, appointed to lead 
Matamoras expedition, 200 ; sent to 
the Alamo, 204. 
Bradburn, Jolm Davis, at Anahuac, 
175 ; his arrest of Madero, and Car- 
bajal, 175, 176 ; his escape to Loui- 
siana, 177. 
Brazoria, exempted from order closing 

ports, 175. 
Brazos, refusal to pay duties at month 
of, 17G; department of, 187, 230; 
Indian agency, 272. 
Breckinridge, vote for, in Texas, 28o. 
Bucareli, founding of, 92. 
Burleson, in command of troops m 

1842, 247. 
Burnet, David G., president of pro- 
visional government, 218 ; urges 
Houston to fight, 224 ; saves Santa 
Anna from Texas vengeance, 242. 



Burnham's Crossing, 222. 

Burr, fears of his invasion of Mexico, 

lie. 

Bustamante, overthrows Guerrero, 
104 ; driven from ofifice, 184. 

Cabeza de Vaca, wanderings of, 16. 
Cabildo, 62, 63. 

Cadillac, Governor Lamothe de, his 
cooperation with Crozat, 39 ; his 
efforts to open trade with Mexico, 
39; sends an expedition to Texas. 
40; his instructions to Saint-Denis, 
42 ; his letters from Saint-Denis, 
44, 46, 47 ; his plan to oppose Span- 
ish settlement at Natchitoches, 
47. 
Canary Islands, settlers from, at San 

Fernando, 72, 73. 
" Cart War," the, 274. 
Cattle industry, the Texas, 301. 
Cenis, reached by La Salle, 24; in- 
cluded among the Tejas, 33. 
Cliamp d'Asile, 136. 
Cherokees, their settlement near Na- 
cogdoches, 163, 233,234; expulsion 
of, in 1839, 234. 
Cibola, the myth of, 15 ; discovered 

by Niza, >17. 
Clark, Edward, supersedes Houston, 

288. 
Clear Fork Indian Agency, 272. 
Coahuila and Texas, constitution of, 

1827, 101. 
Coke, Richard, 296. 
Colonization law, general, of January, 
1823, 146; of April, 1823, 153; of 
August, 1824, 153, 154; of Coahuila 
and Texas, 154. 
Comanches, Spanish checked by, 15 ; 
attack the San Saba mission, 89; 
Spanish expedition against, 90; in- 
solent behavior towards Mexicans, 
126; fight with, at San Antonio in 
1840, 234 ; the most troublesome of 
the tribes, 271. 
Commerce, illicit, on the Texas bor- 
der, 84. 
Common law, its introduction re- 
quired, 215. 
Concepcit')n, battle of, 192. 
Concepcion, pueblo of, 56 ; description 
of church of, 62; mission removed 
to B^jar, 71. 
Constitution, of 1824, 98 ; of 1836, 214- 
216; of 1866, 293 ; of 1869, 296 ; of 
1876, 297. 
Consultation, general, called, 190, 191 ; 

its organization, 194. 
Convention of 1832, 180-184. 
Convention of 1833, 184, 185. 
Convention of 1836, meeting of, 210; 
declares Texas independent, 211- 
214; its work, 214. 



INDEX 



315 



Convention of the Secession, called, 

285; action of, 286-288. 
Convention of 18(56, 293. 
Convention of 1868, 295. 
Cooke, Captain Pliilip S., his treatment 

of Snively's men, 251. 
Cordoba, expedition to Yucatan, 13. 
Cordova, Vicente, hia insurrection, 

233. 
Coronado, expedition of, 2, 18. 
Correo, outrages and capture of, 188. 
Cortes, 12, 14, 17. 
Cortina, Juan, leader of law-brealiers, 

274. 
Cos, his surrender of Bejar, 195 ; re- 
enforces Santa Anna, 225. 
Cotton, production of, in Texas, 300. 
Council of provisional government, its 

organization, 197; its quarrel with 

Governor Smith, 199-203. 
Croix, General, his visit of inspection, 

92. 
Crozat, Antoine, grant of Louisiana 

trade to, 38. 

Davis, E. J., 296. 

Dawson, Captain Nicholas, slaughter 
of his men, 248. 

Debt, the, of the Republic of Texas, 
235. 

Declaration for the constitution of 
1824, 196. 

Decree of April 6, 1830, adopted, 159 ; 
provisions of, 173, 174; of Sept. 15, 
1829, abolishing slavery, issued by 
Guerrero, 158; exemption of Texas 
from, 172, 173. 

De Leon, Alonso, sent to find Fort St. 
Louis, 26; his second and third ex- 
peditions to Texas, 27. 

De Leon's colony, 156. 

Delgado, his murder of Salcedo and 
his staff, 120. 

De Nava, his dealings with Nolan, 112. 

Denton, Normal School at, 310. 

De Soto, expedition of, 2. 

De Witt's colony, 156. 

Dickinson, Mrs. Almerion, survives 
tlie massacre at the Alamo, 208. 

Dutch colonies on the Atlantic coast, 4. 

Education, acts concerning, in Janu- 
ary, 1839, and February, 1840, 275 ; 
private, in Texas, 311. 

Educational institutions of Texas, 
309-311. 

Edwards, Benjamin W., left in charge 
of Edwards's colony, 164; proclaims 
republic of Fredonia, 165. 

Edwards's colony, 156. 

Edwards, Hayden, in Mexico, 146 ; his 
grant, 163; his authority, 164; op- 
position to, 164; withdrawal of grant 
to, 165 ; his unwise action, 165. 



Eleemosynary system of Texas, 308, 
309. 

Ellis, Richard, president of the con- 
vention of 1836, 210. 

Escoceses, 102. 

Espinosa, 45. 

Espiritu Santo Bay, La Salle at, 22; 
expedition against, 79, 80. 

Fannin, at Goliad, 205 ; massacre of 
his men, 206 ; his orders from Hous- 
ton, 210. 

Farias, vice-president, 105, 106. 

Filisola, General, succeeds Santa 
Anna, 226. 

Fisher, Colonel William S., 249. 

Flag, the Texas, 230. 

Flores, Manuel, his death, 233. 

Florida, struggle of French and Span- 
ish in, 5 ; purchase of, 7 ; reached 
by De Leon, 13 ; original extent, 16. 

Fort St. Louis, sufferings at, 23 ; de- 
struction of, 24 ; reached by Span- 
ish, 27. 

France, war with Spain in Italy, 11. 

Franciscans, their colleges, 60. 

Franquis, Don Carlos de, his persecu- 
tion of Sandoval, 83. 

Fredonians, allied with Indians, 167 ; 
refuse to submit to Mexican govern- 
ment, 167 ; their repulse of Norris, 
168. 

Fredonia, republic of, proclaimed, 
166 ; dissolved, 168 ; danger in the 
rising, 168, 169. 

Freedman's Bureau, 295. 

Free Masonry, used for political pur- 
poses, 101. 

French, early explorations of, 2 ; ex- 
pelled from America by English, 6. 

Gachupme.i, their cruelties and devas- 
tations in 1813, 121. 

Gaines, General, on the Sabine River, 
227 ; his movement into Texas in 
1836, 253, 254. 

Gaines, James, opposed to Edwards, 
164. 

Galveston, Harrisburg, and San An- 
tonio Railroad, 304. 

Georgia lost by Spanish, 6. 

Goliad, one of the three old Spanish 
settlements in Texas, 66 ; captured 
by Texans in 1835, 192 ; declaration 
of independence, 212, 213. 

Gonzales, Ensign, expelled from 
Adaes, 128. 

Gonzales, skirmish at, 191 ; contin- 
gent from, enters the Alamo, 206 ; 
bunied, 220 ; its situation, 220. 

Gonzalez, Ensign Joseph, coi'respond- 
ence with Saint-Denis, 82. 

Government, provisional, of 1835, 197. 

Granger, General Gordon, 292. 



316 



INDEX 



Grant, Doctor, 205. 

Great Britain, relations of, with Texas, 

257. 
Greer County, lost by Texas, 267. 
Grijalva, expedition of, 1518, 14. 
Groce's, 223. 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 264. 
Guadalupe, mission, location of, 50. 
Guerrero, president, 103 ; dictator, 

103 ; his decree abolishing slavery, 

103, 158. 
Gutierrez, Bernardo, expedition of 

1812-1813, 116-121 ; on council of 

provisional government of 1819, 122. 

Harrisburg burned, 224. 

Herrera, his treaty with Wilkinson, 
129, 130. 

Hidalgo, Miguel, his rising, 95. 

Hidalgo, the missionary, his letter to 
Cadillac, 40, 41. 

Hood's Brigade, 288. 

Houston and Texas Central Railroad, 
303. 

Houston, city of, chosen as seat of 
government till 1840, 239. 

Houston, Sam, at convention of 1833, 
185; favors declaration for consti- 
tution of 1824, 195 ; elected major- 
general, 198; his attitude towards 
the Matamoras expedition, 200; 
orders Neill to abandon Bejar, 204 ; 
delegate to the convention of 1836, 
210; appointed commander-in-chief 
of the Texas army, 218, 219; his 
orders to Fannin at Goliad, 219 ; 
his retreat from Gonzales to San 
Jacinto, 221-224 ; elected president, 
229 ; his Indian policy, 233 ; assists 
in saving Santa Anna from Texas 
vengeance, 242 ; his speech in tlie 
United States senate in 1859, 279 ; 
opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill, 280: beaten by Rumiels for 
governor, 1857, 280 ; beats Runnels 
for governor, 1859, 280 ; leader of 
conservative element, 281 ; his ef- 
forts to prevent secession, 284-288; 
stands by his State, 287; deposed 
from the governorship, 288 ; his 
death, 288. 
Huston, General Felix, 232. 

Immigration, checked by decree of 
April 6, 1830, 174, 270, 271. 

Independence Day, 227. 

Independence, declaration of, 211. 

Indian reservations, 272, 273. 

Indians, measures to Christianize, 28 ; 
management of, 56; their raids, 

271. 
Indios reducidos, deterioration of, 

93. 
Intercommunication, means of, 303. 



International and Great Northern 

Railroad, 304. 
Island, Galveston, the rendezvous of 

pirates, 131. 
Ituibide becomes emperor, 98. 

Johnson, Frank W., leader of expe- 
dition against Anahuac, 176; ap- 
poiuted to lead Matamoras expedi- 
tion, 201. 

Johnston, Albert Sidney, 232. 

Jones, President Anson, his attitude 
towards annexation, 259. 

Kendall, the historian, his opinion as 
to the Santa F.5 expedition, 246. 

Kimble, H. S., secretary of the con- 
vention of 1836, 210. 

King, Captain, slaughter of his men, 
206. 

Know-nothingism in Texas, 280. 

La Bahia, established by Aguayo, 78 ; 
besieged by Salcedo, 119 ; captured 
by Long in 1821, 123. 

Lafitte, Jean, his cooperation sought 
by Long, 123 ; at Barataria, 133, 
134; at the battle of New Orleans, 
134 ; on Galveston Island, 134, 135 ; 
expelled by United States govern- 
ment, 135. 

La Harpe, Bt5nard de, correspondence 
with Margil and Alarcon, 48, 49; di- 
rects Blondel to apologize to Span- 
ish, 70, 77 ; his expedition to Espi- 
ritu Santo Bay, 80. 

Lallemaud, one of the founders of 
Champ d'Asile, 135. 

Lamar, General, sent to take com- 
mand of the army, 231 ; his Indian 
policy, 233; his educational policy, 
239; favors the Santa F6 expedi- 
tion, 245. 

La Salle reaches mouth of Mississippi, 
20; lands by mistake at Matagorda 
Bay, 21 ; his establishment of Fort 
St. Louis, 22; his efforts to reach 
the Mississippi, 24; his death, 24; 
his sclieme to conquer New Biscay, 
38. 

Lipantitlan, captured by Texans in 
1835 192. 

Little Rock laid off by James Bryan, 
140. 

Llano Estacado, 10. 

Long, James, his invasion of Texas, 
122, 123; death of, 123. 

Louis XIV., aggressive policy of, 21; 
his relative neglect of America, 34- 
37. 

Louisiana, colonized by French, 3, 36; 
named by La Salle, 21. 

Louisiana Purchase, revives uoundary 
question, 84, 127. 



INDEX 



317 



Magee, Augustus, expedition of, 1812- 
1813, llG-ril; death of, 119. 

Manchola, Rafael, delegate to Mexico, 
182. 

Mansfield, battle of, 290. 

Mauufactures in Texas, 301. 

Mauzanet, sent to Texas, 27; hisestab- 
lisliment of Mission San Francisco 
de los Tejas, 29; with Teran in Tex- 
as, 31. 

Margil, his correspondence with La 
Harpe, 48, 49. 

Martin, Wily, elected brigadier gen- 
eral, 182 ; refusal of his company to 
follow Houston in retreat, 221, 223. 

Martinez, Governor, his dealing with 
Mo-ses Austin, 140, 141. 

Matamoras, expedition, 199, 200, 201, 
204 ; broken up, 204 ; expedition 
against, proposed in summer of 183(3, 
243. 

McLeod, General Hugh, leader of 
Santa Ft5 expedition, 245. 

McMullen and McGloin's colony, 156. 

Mejia, Jos6 Antonio, his Tampico ex- 
pedition, 108; his expedition to Tex- 
as, 178. 

Mexican republic, centralized from 
the first, 99. 

Mexicans, Ul-feeling towards those re- 
maining in Texas, 273, 274. 

Mexican War, not caused by a bound- 
ary dispute, 262. 

Mexico, conquest of, 2, 14 ; independ- 
ence of, 8 ; effect of separation of, 
from Spain, 97 ; ill-feeling of, to- 
wards Texas, 242; suspends hostili- 
ties against Texas, 251 ; proposal of, 
to recognize independence of Texas, 

260 ; war of, with the United States, 

261 ; share of, in bringing on the 
war with the United States, 262. 

Mier expedition, 248-250. 

Milam, Benjamin R., calls for volun- 
teers to assault Bejar, 193. 

Miller, James B., commissioner to 
Mexico, 185. 

Mina, General Javier, his expedition, 
132. 

Mining interests of Texas, 300. 

Missions, the, 54-60; the group of, 
founded by Ramon, 50; ineffective- 
ness of , 85; removal of QuertStaran, 
70. 

Mississippi, mouth of, seized by 
French, 16; mouth of, reached by 
La Salle, 20. 

Missouri Compromise line, the north- 
ern boundary of Texas, 265. 

Moderators, 237. 

Monclova, contest of, with Sal till o for 
capital, 186. 

Moore, Colonel John, his raid on the 
Comauches, 235. 



Moore, Commodore, his controversy 
with Houston, 231. 

Morelos, the revolutionary leader, 95. 

Morti, Padre, his estimate of the estab- 
lishments at Bejar, 92. 

Morfit, Henry M., 253. 

Nacogdoches, one of the three old 
Spanish settlements in Texas, 66; 
flight of republicans from, in 1813, 
121 ; conditions there ripest for re- 
volution, 161-163 ; effect of filibus- 
tering expeditions on, 162; occupied 
by Anglo-Americans, 162; included 
in Edwards's grant, 163; rising at, in 
1832, 179, 180; department of, 187, 
230. 

Napoleon, 127. 

Nassonites, the. La Harpe among, 48. 

Natchitoches, Domingo Ramon at, 51 ; 
near Adaes, 75; removal of fort 
at, 81 . 

Navarro, Jose Antonio, imprisoned in 
Mexico, 246. 

Navy, the Texas, 230, 231. 

Neill, Lieutenant-Colonel, his report 
to Houston, 201; ordered to aban- 
don Bejar, 204. 

Neutral ground, Gutierrez-Magee ex- 
pedition organized there, 117; as 
proposed by United States in 1804, 
128, 130, 131; treaty, 130. 

New Mexico, attitude of, towards 
Texas claims in 1848, 264; territory 
given to, out of Texas claims iu 
1850, 266; campaign of 1861-1862 
in, 289. 

New Orleans founded, 37. 

New York taken by the English, 5. 

Niza, Marcos de, his discovery of Ci- 
bola, 17. 

Nolan, his expedition, 111-116 ; hia 
aims, 111-114; his death, 115. 

Norris, Samuel, opposed to Edwards, 
164; beaten by the Fredonians, 
168. 

North Mexican confederation, propo- 
sal to establish, 244. 

Novenarios, 102. 

Old San Antonio road, the, 50. 

Old Stone Fort, the, 61; built near 
Mission Guadalupe, 92; Piedras'8 
men driven therefrom, 180. 

Orcoquisac, suppressed, 91. 

Palmito, last battle of the Civil War 
at, 290. 

Panhandle, 11. 

Peace of Ryswick, 35-37. 

Peace of Westphalia, 12. 

Pease, Governor, his measures pro- 
posed to stop the " Cart War," 274. 

Pensacola, attack on, 76. 



318 



INDEX 



Perote, uprising at, 102; prisoners of, 
250. 

Perry, Captain, on Galveston Island 
with Miua, 13'2, 133. 

Piedras, Colonel, at Anahuac, 177; 
rising against, 179, 180. 

Pilar, presidio of, established, 78; sup- 
pressed, 91. 

Pineda, his exploration of Gulf shore, 
14. 

Poblaeidn, the, 62, 63. 

Politics, personal nature of, in the 
early State period, 279. 

Polk, elected President, 258; too ag- 
gressive towards Mexico, 262. 

Population of Texas, in 1820, 124; in 
1827, 156; in 1847, 270; growth of, 
305. 

Prairie View Normal School, 310. 

Presidio, the, 60, 61. 

Property, assessed value of, in Texas, 
305. 

Provincias Internas, organization of, 
92; changes in, 94. 

Public domain, 236. 

Public education, grant in support of, 
asked for by convention of 1832, 
237 ; provided for in constitution of 
1836, 238; sentiment favoring it in 
Texas, 238, 239; development of the 
system, 275-279 ; provisions for, in 
constitution of 1845, 276; revival 
of interest in, after Compromise of 
1850, 277; act of 1854 concerning, 
277, 278. 

Public lands, Texas retains its, 261. 

Pueblo, the, 62, 63; the, of Concep- 
cion, 56. 

Quer«;tarans, retirement of, from Tex- 
as, 92. 
Queretaro, Franciscan college of, 60. 
Quintana, Andreas, 146. 

Railroad building, in Texas, 303, 304. 

Bamon, Captain Diego, his treatment 
of Saint-Denis, 43, 44; leader of ex- 
pedition of 1716, 45; at Natchi- 
toches, 51. 

Rangers, the, their efficiency as Indian 
fighters, 232. 

Reconstruction, effects of congres- 
sional policy of, 291; according to 
President Johnson's plan, 292 ; ac- 
cording to the congressional plan, 
294-297. 

Red River, French settlement on, 51. 

Refugio, founding of, 93. 

Bfgidorcs, 62, 63. 

Regulators, 237. 

Revolution of 1821, effect of, in Texas, 
124. 

Revolution of 1836, begun in Mexico, 
108. 



Rhode Island, income of, per capita, 
303. 

Richards, , a member of Nolan's 

expedition, 113. 

Rigault, one of the founders of Champ 
d'Asile, 135. 

Rio Grande, presidio of the, Saint- 
Denis at, 43, 44. 

Rivera, General Pedro, his inspection, 
86; his controversy with the mis- 
sionaries, 87. 

Roberts, Judge O. M., chairman of 
Secession convention, 286. 

Robertson's colony, 156. 

Robinson, James W., elected lieuten- 
ant-governor, 198; recognized as 
acting governor, 202; his proposi- 
tion to Santa Anna, 250. 

Roman Catholic, Austin's colonists 
required to be, 148. 

Rosillo, battle of, 119. 

Rubi, MarqutSs de, his visit of inspec- 
tion, 91. 

Rusk, goes to the Texas army, 224; 
favors the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
280. 

Sabine Cross Roads, battle of, 290. 

Saint - Denis, Louis Juchereau de, 
chosen leader of expedition into 
Texas, 41 ; his agreement with Ca- 
dillac, 42; his letters to Cadillac, 
44, 40, 47; his marriage, 44; con- 
ducted to Mexico, 44; his declara- 
cidn, 45 ; an official of the expedi- 
tion of 1716, 46; his treachery, 47, 
56; his fortunes after 1716, 51,52; 
did not attack Adaes, 76; his double 
dealing, 79, 80; correspondence with 
Sandoval, 82, 83. 

Salado, decimation of Mier prisoners 
at, 250. 

Salcedo, murdered by Delgado and his 
men, 120. 

Saltillo, contest with Monclova for 
capital, 186. 

Sam Houston Normal Institute, 310. 

San Antonio, missions in and near, 62; 
one of the three old Spanish settle- 
ments in Texas, 67; its origin, 68; 
its three elements, 69; the name, 
74 ; captured by Vasquez, 246; cap- 
tured by Won, 247, 248. 

San Antonio de Bejar, presidio of, 
founded by Alarcon, 70. 

San Antonio de Valero, mission of, 
establislied by Alarcon, 70; seculari- 
zation of, 74. 

Sandoval, Manuel de, his trouble over 
removal of fort at Natcliitoches, 
81-83. 

San Felipe de Austin, the capital of 
Austin's colony, 150; passed by the 
Texas army, 223. 



INDEX 



319 



San Fernando, management of affairs 
at, 64; school system of, C5; villa 
of, its establishment, 71 ; first set- 
tlers of, 73 ; Indian pueblo put in 
charge of parish of, 74; application 
of the name, 74. 

San Francisco de la Espada, a continu- 
ation of San Francisco de los Tejas, 
30, 71. 

San Francisco de los Neches, flight of 
Spanish from, 76. 

San Francisco de los Tejas, Mission, 
established, 29; misfortmies of, 30; 
transfers of, 30; reestablished, 
1716, 50. 

San Jacinto, battle of, 225, 226. 

San Jose de Aguayo, mission of, 70. 

San Juan Bautista, Mission, estab- 
lished, 34; Saint-Denis at, 43, 44. 

San Juan Capistrano moved to Bejar, 
71. 

San Marcos, Normal School at, 310. 

San Saba, establishment of mission, 
89. 

Santa Anna, his overthrow of the con- 
stitution of 1824, 102; rising against 
Bustamante, 104 ; president, 105, 
106; his retirement, 100; his cen- 
tralizing work, 107; dictator, 107; 
in favor with Texans, 180; elected 
president, 184 ; his decision as to 
Texas affairs in 1834, 186 ; over- 
throws government of Coahuila, 
187; orders execution of prisoners 
at the Alamo, 208 ; his pursuit of 
the Texas army, 222-225; reen- 
forced by Cos, 225; captured, 226; 
overthrown by Herrera, 259. 

Santa F6, first Spanish settlement east 
of Rio Grande, 15. 

Santa Fe, expedition, 244-246. 

San Xavier, mission established on, 
88. 

Seguin, Erasmo, commissioner to Mex- 
ico, 185. 

Sesma on the Colorado, 222, 223. 

Sheridan, General, 294, 295. 

Slavery, provisions relative to, in the 
constitution of 1836, 215 ; not the 
motive to colonization or revolution 
in Texas, 216; its troublesome influ- 
ence on relations with Texas, 241 ; 
complicates the question of annexa- 
tion, 255. 

Slave trade, prohibited by constitution 
of 1S36, 215 ; declaration concern- 
ing it, by convention of 1836. 217. 

Smith, Henry, his circular letter of 
October, 1834, 189 ; elected provi- 
sional governor, 198 ; his quarrel 
with the council, 199-203 ; a candi- 
date for president, 229. 

Snively, Colonel Jacob, his expedition, 
250, 251. 



Somervell, commander of Texas army 
in 1842, 247-249. 

Southern Pacific Railroad, 304. 

Soutliwest, the, settled by the Span- 
ish, 3. 

Spain, war with France in Italy, 11 ; 
religious history of, 54. 

Spanish, failure of, in colonizing work, 
53 ; daring of their explorers, 53 ; 
settlements in Texas, 54 ; their three 
settlements, 65. 

Spanisli Bluff, Anglo-American name 
for fort on Trinity, 118 ; settlement 
destroyed in 1813, 121. 

Stewart, Charles B., fined for con- 
tempt of council, 203. 

St. Louis, Fort, established by La 
Salle, 22 ; Spanish expeditions 
against, 26. 

Sunset railroad system, 303. 

Swedish colonies, on the Atlantic 
coast, 4; conquered by Dutch, 5. 

Tejas, Indians, 27 ; home of the, 28 ; 
the confederacy of, 33. 

Tenorio, expulsion of, from Anahuac, 
187, 188. 

Teran, Captain Domingo, expedition 
to Texas, 31. 

Teran, General, his visit to the frontier 
in 1827, 160 ; his military occupation 
of Texas, 174. 

Terry Rangers, 288. 

Texas, its making, 1, 9, 12 ; the pro- 
vince formed, 7 ; revolution, 8; geo- 
graphy of, 10 ; crossed by Coronado, 
IS ; early expeditions into, 18; old- 
est town in, 19; the name, 32, 33; 
neglected by Spanish, 34, 35 ; en- 
tered by Saint-Denis expedition, 42 ; 
in possession of Spain, 52; presidio 
of, abandoned, 70; restored by Agua- 
yo, 78; Spanisli failure to colonize, 
85 ; presidio of, suppression of, 86, 
87 ; effect of Mexican independence 
on, 97 ; attached to Coahuila, 100 ; 
holds out for the constitution of 
1824, 107 ; claims of United States 
in, 127 ; not filled with immigrants 
by the empresarios, 155 ; desire of 
United States for, 170 ; exempted 
from decree abolishing slavery, 173; 
military occupation of, by Teriin, 
174 ; ill-feeling of, towards Mexico, 
242 ; suspends hostilities against 
Mexico, 251; independence of, re- 
cognized by various nations, 252 ; re- 
lations of Republic of, with France, 
252 ; with United States, 2.52, 253 ; 
with Great Britain, 257 ; accepts 
annexation, 259, 260; its failure to 
establish jurisdiction to the Rio 
Grande, 263 ; payments to, by Com- 
promise of 1850, 266, 267, 269 ; atti- 



320 



INDEX 



tude of, in the Civil War, 282, 283 ; 
niQitary operations ia, during the 
Civil War, 288-290; condition of, 
during the Civil War, 290 ; readmit- 
ted to the Union, 29G ; territorial ex- 
tent of, 298; agricultural resources 
of, 298; progress subsequent to re- 
construction period, 299; cotton pro- 
duction of, 300; cattle industry of, 
301 ; manufactures in, 301 ; income 
per capita, 303; railroad mileage of, 
304; value of property in, 305; pop- 
ulation of, 305; immigration to, its 
sources, 305, 306; character of the 
people of, 307, 308. 

Texas Pacific Railroad, 304. 

Throckmorton, J. W., opposed to se- 
cession, 293; removed by Sheridan, 
295. 

Tornel, 103; his policy, 158. 

Travis, William B., arrested by Brad- 
burn, 176 ; leader of expedition 
against Anahuac in 1835, 188 ; his 
refusal to act with Peace party, 189 ; 
sent to the Alamo, 204 ; his requests 
for help, 206 ; his letter of February 
24, from the Alamo, 207, 208; his 
courage, 208. 

Turtle Bayou resolutions, 177-179. 

Twiggs, General, his surrender of 
Texas to the Confederates, 288, 289. 

Tyler, President, his part in the an- 
nexation of Texas, 257-259. 

Ugartechea, at Velasco, 177 ; his de- 
mand for cannon at Gonzales, 191 . 

United States, claims in Texas, 127 ; 
seeks to buy all or part of Texas, 
170; war of, with Mexico, 261; 



makes conditions for the payments 
to Texas, 266, 207. 
University of Texas, appropriation for, 
by act of January, 18.39, 278; pro- 
vision for, by act of February, 1858, 
278 ; its opening and growth, 310, 
311. 

Vasquez, his capture of San Antonio, 

246. 
Velasco, attack on, 177 ; treaties of, 

226, 242. 

Ward, Lieutenant-Colonel, his party 
captured, 206. 

Washington on the Brazos, meeting- 
place of the convention of 1836, 210 ; 
seat of government for a time, 240. 

Wharton, J. A., report of declaration, 
195. 

Wharton, William H., delegate to 
Mexico, 182 ; his opposition to Aus- 
tin, 182, 183 ; elected commissioner 
to United States, 198. 

Wilkinson, General, his treaty with 
Herrera, 129; in Mexico, 146. 

Williams, Samuel M., in partnership 
with Stephen F. Austin, 155. 

WoU, General, his capture of San 
Antonio, 247. 

YorMnos, 102. 
Ysleta, 19, 67. 

Zacatecans, retreat west, 91. 

Zacatecas, Franciscan college of, 60. 

Zavala, Lorenzo de, takes refuge in 
Texas, 188 ; vice-president of pro- 
visional government, 218. 



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